Come To Life
by TCTW
Summary: Gumball is left in utter disbelief after finding out a heartbreaking secret that his mother had been keeping from him. Alongside that, Ms. Simian decides she's had enough of Gumball's attitude, and everything that comes with it. Several other things ensue from this, and Gumball ends up having to save his own life. Rated T just in case.
1. Intro

**Hello, everyone. As you can see, this is my fourth TAWOG fanfic. I've been wondering whether or not I should write a new fanfic or do a rewrite of one of my previous stories. Eventually, I decided that I would write a new one.**

**I've had an idea for this story for a few weeks now already, it's only now that I managed to put it together. (Well, that applies to every story ever, but still...)**

**Anyway, here goes my new story, "Come To Life". Enjoy!**

In the middle of the night, Gumball suddenly appeared just outside the main entrance of Elmore Jr. High, all shaken up from what had just happened, but still in hopes that he would find something he was sure was there at the moment.

Or more precisely, _somebody_.

So, without a single word, he ran inside. Obviously it was almost completely dark in there, but Gumball did not want to risk turning on the lights, because that way, anyone from a reasonable distance would figure out that the school wasn't empty. Including the one person he least wanted to.

He then started running through the hallways. Still feeling horribly unstable, but not sweating, eventually he made it to the school dining room. Fortunately, the person he expected to see was really there, clearly having gotten out of the situation Gumball himself couldn't.

"Anais!" he yelled.

Sadly, it was to no avail.

But wait.

Let's go back a little, shall we?

* * *

It was just another relatively sunny day in the city of Elmore, California. The weather forecast had predicted rain for the next few days, but nobody had been really worried about that.

Since it was Tuesday, the streets of Elmore were cluttered with cars, inside which were mostly people going to work. For the very same reason, all the kids were at the local school, Elmore Jr. High.

Including a certain 12-year-old blue cat, Gumball Watterson.

Now, for his age, Gumball is a very simple child, but at the same time, he is more complex than it would seem at first glance. He is always there for most of his friends when they are in trouble, however, more often than not, more than he himself would like to admit, the actions and ideas he thought of on his own were very mean-spirited. With a very few exceptions, whatever he would do, whatever kinds of crazy shenanigans he would decide to commit, his actions would almost always get somebody upset. Whether it be a member of his own family, another classmate, or even completely random Elmore citizens he had never even met before.

But there was one person whom Gumball's deeds would get particularly upset.

It was Lucy Simian, a 300,000-year-old-ape and Gumball's teacher in Elmore Jr. High.

This old woman, she developed an almost instantaneous antipathy for Gumball ever since he first set foot in this school, back when he was 7, and as time passed, this antipathy only grew bigger. She had known about everything Gumball had done around this weird (to say the least) town, and every bad deed he had, intentionally or not, done to her as well. But none of these things were enough for Ms. Simian to do the one thing that would irreversibly stop Gumball from even thinking about doing any more harm to anyone else. The one thing that would make his life a living hell.

She just had to wait until he did something, anything, that was way, _way_ over the line.

She waited for the last straw.

* * *

What happened to Gumball that specific Tuesday evening was, in fact, completely unrelated to anything involving Ms. Simian.

It was after he came back home from school, alongside his 10-year-old adopted goldfish brother, Darwin, and his 4-year-old pink bunny sister, Anais.

What they saw upon entering the house they lived in was their father, an overweight pink bunny named Richard, sitting on the couch and consistently switching TV channels, with a sip of drool coming out of his mouth and an unbuttoned shirt, probably having been in that state for the whole day; alongside Nicole, their blue cat mother, who was resting on the couch and on her husband's chest, most likely exhausted from work; the only light in the house coming from the turned-on TV.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad," Gumball greeted his parents, not feeling like he had done anything wrong in school that day.

"Hi, kids," Nicole said back, in a sleepy voice. Richard also tried to greet his children, but his mouth was half-full.

Darwin then remembered what he and Gumball were talking about earlier that day in school, during the lunch break. So he lightly hit his brother on his left shoulder, in a way that would make Gumball remember it too. Anais, knowing about the subject, just sighed.

"Hey, Mom, can I ask you something?" Gumball curiously addressed to Nicole, but carefully, hoping she would not get all furious. For mostly everyone else, Gumball did not care all that much if he would anger them by his actions. But with his mother, it was a whole different story altogether, because when angered, Nicole could turn into a literal demon and effortlessly take down all of Elmore.

Luckily for the blue feline, this time it wasn't the case. "Yes, honey?" Nicole asked, still half-asleep.

Then, Gumball asked: "Did you just, like, magically become great at cooking and doing laundry and all the housework and stuff when you had me?"

Upon hearing this question, Nicole became almost fully awake, and looked at her eldest son with a half-shocked facial expression.

Gumball just stood there, this situation being a little awkward for him, as his mother just stared at him like that, and he didn't know what to say. The three second that this took place felt like at least ten seconds.

Suddenly:

"Well, of course," Nicole exclaimed almost cheerfully. "What else did you think?" She then sighed in a positive way, rolled her eyes, and laid her head back on Richard's greasy chest.

"See, I told you," Gumball told his brother, slightly victoriously. Darwin sighed in defeat.

"That's just one example," Anais pointed out, indirectly defending the goldfish. "It doesn't necessarily mean all mothers are like that."

"Yeah, whatever," Gumball exclaimed with a smirk on his face, "I still win." After saying this, he carelessly leaned on the wooden space that was under the staircase. However, he had obviously forgotten about the door to the basement, which was placed exactly where he had placed his hand. Without anyone having any time to react to this, the blue cat fell inside, and just fell down the stairs.

Tripping on every single stair until the bottom one, Gumball yelled "Ouch!" each time hitting a stair, until he reached the floor of the basement. Even a few things in the basement fell on him.

Anais just rolled her eyes.

Darwin quickly ran inside. "Oh, my gosh, Gumball, are you okay?" he asked, worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gumball casually answered, not really having broken any part of his body, just feeling a little pain around his chest, and covered in dust. "I just have to take a shower now," he said, a little dissatisfied. Darwin, being the good-spirited goldfish, was happy that his brother was still doing fine, and Anais rolled her eyes once more. Both of them went on to have dinner, while Gumball went upstairs and in the bathroom, to take that shower.

However, just as he was about to take off his shirt, he felt something in his back.

But it wasn't pain.

Well, as he would discover later on, at least not physical pain.

**And there goes the first chapter of "Come To Life". I'll be leaving you to wonder what this thing Gumball felt was. Or what Ms. Simian wanted to do. Until the next chapter, leave reviews. See you!**


	2. The letter

**Hello, everyone. Here I am with chapter two of this story.**

**Thank you for all the reviews so far.**

**Since there is not much more to be added, here it is. Enjoy!**

"Huh?" Gumball called out confusedly, feeling something in his shirt.

After taking it off, he looked inside it, only to discover that there was a piece of paper in there. It was apparently one of the things that had fallen down on him when he was in the basement.

"Oh, it's just a piece of paper," he said nonchalantly, but just as he was about to get a bin to throw it away, he noticed something on it.

His mother's handwriting.

So apparently, it was some sort of a letter.

This was what got Gumball curious. It wasn't exactly often that he came across letters written by his mother, so he wondered if he might as well read this one, thinking it wouldn't matter too much to him. He then looked at the inner side of the bathroom door, actually thinking about the outside.

After two seconds of thinking, he decided:

"Oh, well." After all, his showering would only be postponed for a few minutes.

So he started reading it.

_Dear caretakers,_

Hold on. Already these first two words threw Gumball on a surface of confusion. "Huh?" he said to himself.

But he kept reading.

_this cute little cat is called Gumball. He is only a few months old, but he already looks like he could do so much in his life. Unfortunately, due to our current situation, we are no longer capable of taking care of him._

"Wait a second," Gumball thought to himself, beginning to get vividly shocked from reading this, "What?"

_We were sure we would be ready for this. We thought we had everything planned out. However, it did not turn out almost at all the way we thought it would. Too many unpredicted things got in the way, and the situation we ended up in isn't one we can handle right now._

This was where Gumball started to lose balance. He hoped that this was just a joke, a prank of some sort, but deep, deep down, he knew it was not. He always knew his family had financial difficulties, but not only was he never aware that it was _this_ difficult for them, it also only now crossed his mind that those difficulties may not only have been financial. That, in fact, _he_ might have been a cause of the family's hardships. Even back when he was mere months old.

_We are hereby leaving Gumball over to you, in hopes that you will treat him better than we did._

_We're sorry._

This was where the letter ended.

No signature, of course.

After finishing reading this letter, Gumball just stared at it. In utter disbelief. Not making a sound. He couldn't yet bring himself to admit it, but he knew he would, in a matter of mere minutes. He lifted his look up from the letter to look at the bathroom door again, just trying to put himself in the position his mother was in when he was just a baby.

And then, it flew inside his head.

And his heart broke.

Bursting into tears, it was now the only thing he would be able to think about for a while.

"They were gonna abandon me?"

**Well, that concludes chapter two. Sorry for the short chapter. Hopefully, it was emotional. If otherwise, please let me know. Before going into the consequences of this heartbreaking discovery, the next chapter will dig into how Nicole and Richard handled taking care of Gumball back when he was just a baby, that they decided to draw such a move. Until then, leave reviews. See you!**


	3. Back then

**Hi, guys! As you can see, I am continuing this story with the next chapter.**

**As I promised, this chapter will be a flashback to the time when Gumball was just a baby, and what exactly happened between him and his parents that made Nicole decide to write the letter that Gumball discovered in the previous chapter.**

**Well, here's the flashback. Enjoy!**

Let's go back in time a little. More specifically, sometime before Gumball even came to be. Just to see the reason behind all this.

It was a cold, rainy day in the summer of 1998. This heavy rain more or less prevented any reasonable activity that was to be done outdoors. Naturally, everyone stayed inside, unless they really absolutely had to go anywhere.

This was also the case with a trailer park several miles outside Elmore. In one of these trailers lived an exceptionally hard-to-imagine romantic couple. One side of the couple was a big pink bunny, who did not care too much about his health, nor did have any real skills or abilities that would be useful in an everyday life, but in return, he had an enormous heart. Both figuratively and literally. His name was Richard Watterson. The other side of this unlikely couple was a gorgeous blue cat, who back then worked as a cashier, as well as did everything she could for her boyfriend, especially since she had no one else by her side. Her name was Nicole Senicourt.

Both of them were only 25 years old at the time, both of them had moved out of their parents' houses only a couple of years prior to this, and despite all of their differences, they got along perfectly.

That rainy day, Nicole had been specifically asked by her boss not to go to work, due to the really heavy rain. Thus, she and Richard were able to stay in their trailer for the whole day, and do "nothing", which basically consisted of staring at the rain through the window in a hug, eating most of the food that Richard somehow hadn't eaten the previous day, and numerous romantic sessions.

But they did not by any means get bored from this. In fact, they found it very exciting.

Later, in the evening, they were getting ready for their third romantic session that day, after which they would be going to sleep.

Now, for something to be clear, Nicole did not have any problems with this kind of life. Really, she did not see a single actual flaw in this kind of routine. She would go to work in the morning, spend eight hours in front of the cash register, and come back to the trailer park in the evening, with Richard having their home mostly cleaned up. They would then draw each other in a hug, and either watch TV or make love, until they both fell asleep. Or, on days like this one, they would just stay inside for the whole day. This was perfect for her, especially compared to the vast disharmony of living with her parents.

However, over the last few months, she was starting to feel drained from this. Repeating almost the exact the same routine every day. It had been like this ever since the two moved in this trailer park, so for several years already. She started to feel like this was no longer enough.

She wanted more.

Besides, she wouldn't be able to live like this forever, and she wasn't sure how aware of that Richard was.

So, that particular evening, before immersing herself into her boyfriend, Nicole sat on the edge of the bed. Richard noticed this, and stretched his hand out for his girlfriend to take. He always found it stunning how beautiful she looked at night. But, seeing as she didn't react the lovestruck and ready-to-dive way she always did, he got confused.

"Nicole?" he asked her.

"Yeah?" Nicole responded, half-lost in her own thoughts.

"Is everything okay?" Richard asked.

"Oh, yes, everything is fine," Nicole quickly answered, "It's just..." she still thought about it. Was she really ready to give up this harmless way of life, for something she considered more? Now when she actually had to say it, it wasn't such easy a decision. Because once she made it, there was no turning back. But even if they did continue their lives like this, it couldn't be forever.

So, she began.

"I've been thinking for a while now, and..."

"Yeah?"

"...I've made a decision."

There were a few seconds of silence after this, with Richard being held in confusion, waiting for his girlfriend to continue.

And then, she said:

"I want a baby."

And then, there was a longer period of silence. Richard's facial expression changed into that of surprise. Nicole looked at him deep in the eyes, with a smile on her face, waiting for a response. Until:

"I'm sorry, Nicole..." he said sadly, "...but I don't."

Nicole's smile quickly vanished from her face. The two stared at each other in silence, in a very awkward moment. Nicole was sure that her boyfriend would wholeheartedly agree to this idea. Apparently, she was wrong. And she suspected what the reasons for this response of Richard's might have been. The baby would never leave them at peace, always making a mess, and never being satisfied with anything it's provided with. And even when it grew up, it might end up ungrateful. Apparently, Richard wasn't willing to risk it.

Nicole sighed in sadness. She closed her eyes to try and process the fact that her boyfriend just said that. Then, she teared up. Noticing this, Richard quickly positioned himself to sit on the bed, and hugged her. Nicole laid her head on Richard's chest and started crying. She was really looking forward to having a child, and now, her biggest wish was not gonna come true.

Richard felt guilty about this, since he was right now the reason his girlfriend was crying.

"I'm really sorry..." he said once more. Nicole deeply sighed.

"It's okay..." she told him, with a light smile on her face. They then took each other's hands.

"Maybe someday I'll change my mind," the bunny said, trying to comfort his saddened girlfriend. Then, he hugged her. She hugged him back.

There was another short period of silence. Both of them stared at the window, on the other side of which it was still raining. Richard kissed his girlfriend in the cheek.

"Come on," he said, to which she turned her head at his direction. He then finished, "You should go to sleep."

Still sad, Nicole laid on the bed. Seeing she wasn't feeling any better, Richard hugged her and kissed her in the lips.

"I love you," he said. A smile finally appeared on the blue cat's face.

"I love you too," she said back. Richard was relieved that his girlfriend was now feeling a little better.

"Goodnight," he said, giving her one last kiss for the day, in the forehead.

"'Night," Nicole said back, finally falling asleep. Richard was awake for a little more time, watching his soulmate look like an angel as she was sleeping.

* * *

Around a month later, an amusement park opened in Elmore. Richard was, of course, extremely excited about this, being the somewhat of a manchild he was, and Nicole too looked forward to this, seeing as a day at the amusement park would be a refreshing break from the almost monotonous life in the trailer park.

Since Richard rarely spent his money on anything other than food, by the time of the opening, he had more than enough money to take his girlfriend out. Nicole was, of course, thrilled by this, because this meant she could spend a whole day without having to worry about anything.

As the duo arrived in front of the amusement park's entrance, they both got almost impossibly ecstatic, as they didn't know what to try first. Though, immediately upon entering, they noticed a shiny claw machine on their left, so they thought, why not. They'll have an easy beginning.

It didn't take longer than 30 seconds for Richard to catch a plush cat from the machine, which he then immediately gave to his girlfriend as a gift. Nicole felt really joyous that Richard did such a gesture. She would carry this joy for the whole day that they were there.

Along came a long, long series of rides that admittedly felt like they would never end.

Nicole and Richard tried out every single thing, machine, rollercoaster, _everything_ that this amusement park had to offer. Every single ride there felt like there was nothing better in this world. Nothing felt off, nothing felt any wrong at all, everything was perfect.

But there was one thing that Richard couldn't help but notice.

During this whole day, Nicole's smile never wore off her face.

From the moment she was presented with the plush cat, this real cat felt like the happiest person in the world, and nothing could ruin that feeling for her. Nothing at all.

Richard wasn't able to do much more than just stare at his girlfriend, filled completely with joy and happiness and all the other positive emotions.

It was almost like it made her more physically beautiful.

It was like he fell in love with her again.

Naturally, of course, he didn't want to make anything go wrong for her, even for a single bit. In fact, he could only think of how to increase her happiness.

So, at the end of the day, after they had visited all the rides in this amusement park, when they were getting back to the entrance, he stopped her for a few seconds.

"Nicole..."

"Yes, Richard?" she said cheerfully.

"Close your eyes," Richard said.

"Ooooh, a surprise..." Nicole said, becoming very excited. She then closed her eyes and covered them with her hands.

Richard quickly hurried. After a few moments, coming back:

"Open them," he told her.

Nicole opened her eyes, only to see Richard holding a big portion of cotton candy for her.

For the first few moments, Nicole just stared at the cotton candy, almost not believing this was actually happening. Then, she almost collapsed of happiness. She literally jumped on her boyfriend and kissed him deeply in the lips.

"Thank you," she said, taking the cotton candy to start eating it. Richard just stared at his beautiful girlfriend, endlessly lovestruck.

"You're welcome," he said, being glad that someone like this was his girlfriend.

Late in the evening, the two were driving back to the trailer park. Nicole was still cheerfully eating the cotton candy Richard had bought her. Upon arriving in front of their trailer, Richard quickly got out from the driver's seat and opened the car of the passenger seat for Nicole to exit. As she did, he took her hand and kissed it, to which the blue cat blushed.

"Nicole?" Richard began.

"Yes?" she responded. Richard spent the next few seconds gazing at her beautiful face, and then:

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met," he said. Nicole blushed.

"Thank you," she said. The two kissed each other passionately, and held that kiss for over a minute.

"I love you, Nicole," Richard said, looking deep into his girlfriend's eyes.

"I love you too, Richard," Nicole said back, hugging him tightly.

Unlike a month prior to this, the silence that came here was very much comfortable.

"Oh... one more thing..." Richard added.

"Yeah?" Nicole said, a little confused. Then, Richard finished with:

"You changed my mind," he said with a smile on his face.

For two seconds, Nicole tried to figure out what her boyfriend was talking about, not quite figuring it out. And then, she remembered their talk from a month earlier. Where Richard also mentioned _changing his mind_. Realizing what this meant, she looked him in the eyes, and let out a few tears of utter joy.

If this whole day was a mountain, this moment was certainly its top.

"Oh, thank you, Richard," she said. "Thank you so much..." Her dream was finally going to come true, and Richard couldn't even imagine how inexplicably happy Nicole was for it.

From this, holding hands, they went inside their trailer, and with love in their hearts, went on to create a new life...

* * *

Nine months later, Richard was recklessly driving through Elmore, trying his best to get to Elmore Hospital as soon as possible, since Nicole, who was now his wife, was in labor. Hardly stopping at any red light, and occasionally even going the wrong way on one-way streets, among numerous other traffic disregards, he arrived at the hospital way sooner than even he himself expected. Nicole was, of course, under a lot of stress at the moment, since she could give birth at any given moment now.

Luckily, that wasn't the case. The blue cat was almost immediately relocated into the appropriate room, soon before this miraculous act would begin.

Outside the room, Richard wasn't even trying to hide his nervousness. Sitting in front of the door, his whole body was shaking, and he was panting just from the thought of what was happening on the other side of that door. He couldn't help but walk all around the hospital floor, constantly drinking water, doing everything he could to relieve his stress, but it didn't quite help. Besides, the stress that his wife was facing inside that room was, without an ounce of doubt, a lot bigger.

So, he just sat there, not having any clear thoughts at the moment, just jumping from one thought to another.

And that went on for some time.

Four hours later, a bandage doctor came out the door.

"Mr. Watterson?" he spoke to the pink bunny. Richard's heart started beating faster.

"Yes?" he responded.

"You may see your son," the doctor said.

Richard didn't know what to say. The moment finally came. He was finally gonna see his own child. A boy, as he just found out.

Upon entering the room, the first thing he saw was his lovely wife in a hospital bed, smiling, holding a newborn baby in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

"Richard..." Nicole whispered, not to wake the baby up, "look at him..." she said, with happiness in her voice.

Richard came closer, but the first thing he did was kiss his wife in the forehead, to let her rest. Then, he turned his head to the baby that she was holding, only to discover that it was another blue cat, just like Nicole. The cutest little creature, this tiny blue cat giggled and waved his arms around, and Nicole couldn't possibly be any happier.

"He looks just like his mother," Richard said, turning his head back to his wife.

No sooner than that did Nicole realize what that meant. She was now a mother. A mother of a wonderful little creature that looked exactly like her. This made her feel like the happiest person in the world, again. Tears of joy resurfaced.

"So..." Richard began, "how do you think we should name him?"

Nicole thought about that question for a moment. She looked at her son, and the first name that came to her mind was:

"How about Zach?"

"Hmmm..." Richard thought about it. "Zach Watterson... yeah, that sounds good."

The two smiled in agreement.

"Zach..." Nicole spoke to her child, softly, "you are the most precious thing in my life. I will love you till the end of time, and no matter what you do, I will always be proud of you."

And so, this was the beginning of a new life...

* * *

Unfortunately, after the coming of Zach - or Gumball, as he turned out to prefer responding to such a name - Nicole and Richard's lives turned upside down.

That they hardly ever had time to spend on their own turned out to be the very least of their problems.

That Gumball always made a mess around their newly bought house - which, thankfully, they had saved enough money to buy - was not that big a problem, either.

It was because the change that Gumball brought into this couple's thrilling lives was so rapid and so unimaginably sudden that neither side of the couple was anywhere near prepared for it. One moment, they were casually sitting in their old trailer, eating food and not doing much else, and the next, they were rolling around in mess, with an infant who constantly cried and puked and wouldn't let them sleep properly, but much more importantly - drained all the energy, spirit and will out of them.

The day it all collapsed for them, Gumball wasn't even six months old yet. Already by then have Nicole and Richard been at the verge of losing their minds many times.

That day, Nicole decided to take her son to the park, trying to start getting things right. Putting Gumball in a baby carriage, she began walking him around. Peacefully walking for some 20 minutes, she sat on a nearby bench and looked inside the baby carriage, to see her son sleeping. This very sight made her feel like, no matter how messed up things were right now, somehow everything was going to be alright in the end.

Sadly, this kind of feeling quickly vanished. Gumball woke up and, almost immediately, started crying.

"No, no, no..." Nicole said, trying to comfort her son. "It's okay, sweetie... mommy's here..." But Gumball wouldn't stop crying. In fact, he only cried harder, almost so that the whole park could hear him, as well as Nicole trying her best to calm him down. Even more uncomfortably so, when she picked him up, Gumball immediately started clattering his limbs around horribly fast, like a maniac.

"No, Gumball, please... be good for mommy..." Nicole tried nearly everything to soothe her baby, but he wouldn't stop. He only clattered even faster.

Nicole then thought that breastfeeding might be a good idea to at least somewhat appease her son, but the very moment she placed him in front of her chest, Gumball went on to resist, doing everything to avoid this act.

Desperate that this had happened countless times by then, with no improvement whatsoever, Nicole picked him up again and, getting up from the bench:

"Look, sweetie..." she spoke to her baby again, him screaming and clattering again, "I know you don't understand a thing I'm saying, but... if you could just... calm down a little..." He wouldn't. "Please..."

And puke!

Gumball threw up all over her chest.

Nicole looked at her dirty clothes, and then at her son. Then, she closed her eyes.

What she gave every single one of her attempts to not bring herself into, for the last six months, was exactly what happened now.

Nicole's eyes started tearing up, but she waited until she came back to the car with her baby. When she seated him inside and sat on the driver's seat, that's when she did it.

That's when she went on to cry her heart out.

She wasn't happy anymore.

This was not the life she wanted. And she doubted Richard felt much different about this. A life full of constant despair and sorrow, without anything in return, is not the life anyone would want.

She was stuck in a situation she never wanted to get herself into, with no way out.

Well, there was one way out...

Half an hour later, Richard heard the house's doorbell ring, so he went to open it. When he saw his wife covered in vomit and with traces of dried tears on her face, barely holding the baby carriage by side, Richard was genuinely shocked.

"Nicole, what ha-"

"Richard..." Nicole quickly interrupted him, with pain in her voice, "...I can't do this anymore."

And Richard didn't even question this statement of his wife's. It was crystal clear she wasn't willing to put one more second to try and make this work, when it obviously wasn't going to work.

But before going on with this conversation, the very first thing Nicole did was bring Gumball upstairs and put him in the crib inside his room. After coming back downstairs, she and Richard both sat at the dining table. At first, there was a moment of complete silence, and neither of the two was saying anything to the other. But they didn't really have to, Gumball's screaming from upstairs said everything.

That "moment" of silence lasted for over a minute, before Nicole finally spoke.

"I was thinking..."

Richard did nothing other than listen to his wife. It hurt him so inexplicably bad to see his wife in this state, and whatever the idea she had to bring herself out of this misery, it was most certainly a lot better than anything he could come up with. So he just listened.

But what Nicole then suggested even threw him off guard.

"Maybe we should send him to an orphanage."

Truth be told, even Nicole herself felt wretched saying this. Richard tried to say something against this, or anything at all for that matter, but he didn't have any real arguments against such a decision. He didn't see another way out of this, either. And he couldn't let his wife suffer any longer.

Still, in a kind of confirmation, he asked her:

"Are you sure?"

Nicole did take a few more seconds to think really deeply about this. Those few seconds really felt like an eternity.

In the end, she said:

"Yes."

After this, both of them knew there was nothing more to be said. There wasn't another sound made in this house for the rest of the day. Yes, Gumball had finally calmed down and gone to sleep, but that meant nothing anymore.

One last thing Nicole and Richard did was hug each other.

The following night, around midnight, Richard was driving the car through the heavy rain, with Nicole in the passenger seat, and Gumball in the back seat, sleeping peacefully. No one made a single sound; the only sound that could be heard was that of the car engine running, along with the rain.

When they finally arrived in the front of the Elmore Orphanage, both Nicole and Richard stayed inside the car for a little while, trying to process what was going to happen in a few moments.

Then, Nicole breathed in and out, quietly, not wanting to wake her son up. She got out of the car and reached the backseat to take the cardboard box that Gumball was sleeping in. Inside it was also the letter that Nicole had written just prior to this. Slowly, she made small steps towards the entrance of the orphanage, until she finally found herself just in front of the entrance. Holding her son in her hands, she looked at him. He looked incredibly cute when he was sleeping, without a single care in the world. This would be the last time she would see her baby. They would never see each other again.

But she had to do it.

She couldn't take this any longer.

So she kissed her son in the forehead one last time, and put the cardboard box right next to the orphanage entrance.

"I love you," she whispered to him.

Without a sound, she took a few steps back, still staring at her baby for a few seconds. Then, she turned towards the car and stood next to it.

However, just as she opened the door for the passenger seat - she stopped.

She couldn't get in.

Something was stopping her.

"Nicole...?" spoke Richard, very quietly.

But Nicole just stood there, with her eyes closed, still thinking about what she had just done, and rain pouring heavily on her.

"Nicole," Richard said, not wanting his wife to get cold, "get inside, you'll ge-"

And then, he noticed tears on her face. This, he did not expect. He genuinely thought Nicole would have it much easier now that they have all the time of this world to make the rest of their dreams come true. In fact, Nicole did, too. But the very thought of leaving her child alone in this world, with no way to know what was going to happen to him the very next day already - broke her heart in pieces.

She couldn't abandon her baby.

She loved him too much to do that.

"I can't..." she told her husband. "I... I just can't... I know it's bad, but this is so much worse..." she finished, crying her heart out.

The two looked at each other in silence. Then, Richard stepped out of the car as well, to hug his wife. Nicole let out the rest of her tears on her husband's chest, and Richard patted her in the back.

"I'm sorry..." Nicole said.

"It's okay, honey..." Richard comforted his wife, feeling her pain.

Nicole quickly went back to the entrance and picked up the cardboard box. Bringing it back to the car's backseat, she saw Gumball, who was still sleeping in it. The blue cat was relieved that her baby was alright after all.

No matter how much she cared about her own well-being, her son's safety was infinitely more important to her.

With that feeling in her heart, she sat back in the passenger seat, and Richard drove her and their baby back home...

**And that concludes the flashback! In all honesty, I did not intend for this chapter to be nearly as long as it turned out to be. Please let me know if it was too long compared to the first two chapters. Anyway, in the next chapter, we're getting back to the present day, to see Gumball's reaction to the letter. Until then, leave reviews. See you!**


	4. Tell your parents

**Hi everyone, again. Well, here's chapter four.**

**After finding out what happened all those years ago, we're getting back to present day, to see the consequences after Gumball discovered his mother's abandonment letter.**

**Thank you for all the reviews so far.**

**Enjoy!**

Gumball sat on the edge of the bathtub, and kept sitting for a little more time. He could not believe what he had just read. His own parents wanted to abandon him when he was just a tiny little baby, and he did nothing wrong to them. Or so he thought at least.

A lot of things started to make sense now: first of all, why his mother was always angry at him for doing things he considered casual. She almost always had that uncomfortable glare at him whenever they had a slightly serious conversation. Apparently, it mattered a great deal for her. All the damage he did in the house and across the whole town cost her money; lots of it. It was only now that it finally went through his head what a burden it was for her.

She wanted a peaceful life, and this is what she got instead.

The frustrations of his members of his family weren't of any less concern. Especially Darwin's. The act of him becoming a member of the Watterson family was magical, in the literal sense - he grew lungs and legs with the sole power of love. All three Wattersons back then - because Anais had not been born yet - happily took him in, knowing this would bring a huge change in their lives, for the better. However, over the eight years that the goldfish spent with this family, it turned out Gumball did more of using him than anything else. Gumball could've figured out that it would make him sad.

No wonder he was so kind-hearted towards everyone.

Finally turning the shower on, Gumball stepped inside the bathtub, leaving the letter on top of the washing machine, thinking that the shower might wash these thoughts away. Unfortunately so. The ponderings of how many people he had hurt with his ideas came one after the other.

At one moment, his mind switched to the class in Elmore Jr. High he was in. The very first thought of his was: "Nah, they don't-" but not the second thought.

Whatever particular student, or even teacher, he could think of, he could remember at least one time he had driven them mad.

Now, it's no surprise for someone like Ocho, an 8-bit spider with anger issues, or Masami, a cloud that is a spoiled rich kid, to get mad that easily. But that's nowhere near where the blue cat's apparent provocations ended. From what he recalled, he managed to anger even some of the calmest and most tolerating people in the school, including Alan, Mr. Small, Idaho, Mr. Corneille, etc. Even Penny.

...

Even Penny. The love of his life. Formerly a peanut with antlers, who eventually broke out of her shell, with the very help of the blue cat himself, and turned out to be a shape-shifting fairy. Who then went on to date him.

Even her did he manage to anger.

In a most dissatisfactory way, too. He once sent her on an extremely dangerous quest around Elmore, that could've even gotten her killed, just to prove how romantic he was. And all because of something as ridiculous as a lacking emoji in an online conversation. Gumball closed his eyes, wishing that had never happened.

This got him lost in his thoughts, the shower water still pouring on him.

Suddenly, a loud knock on the door was heard.

"Gumball, are you done yet? You've been showering for 30 minutes!"

It was, of course, his mother, clearly upset that Gumball's showering took so unusually long. Not wanting to upset her even more, he quickly finished, saying:

"Yeah, just a second..." as he got out of the bathtub and grabbed a towel next to him, only to notice his mother's letter once again. Gumball came to the verge of crying again, but managed to sustain it this time.

Quickly putting his clothes on and the letter in his right pocket, he got out of the bathroom, the first thing he saw being his mother just outside.

"Finally," Nicole said. "Other people need to take a shower too, you know."

"Yes, mom," Gumball said sadly, walking away from the bathroom.

Nicole couldn't help but notice this reaction of her son's. He never _ever_ fully and instantly obeyed any of her requests. He always had his own, kind of irresponsible, way of doing things, or on the other side of it, found really incompatible excuses for not doing them. So naturally, it took her by a lot of surprise that Gumball reacted the way he did.

But then she thought it was because he was tired, so she went inside.

Gumball, on the other hand, went downstairs to have dinner, even though he wasn't hungry at all. He saw it was chicken soup for dinner, knowing his mother made it. Since he didn't want to upset her, he ate a bowl of it, almost entirely against his own will, not saying a word.

Anais, who was sitting at the dining table, doing her math homework, couldn't help but also notice this strange behavior of her brother's. Unlike her mother, though, she actually went on to ask him:

"Gumball, is everything okay?"

Gumball snapped out of his thoughts, hearing Anais' question. No, everything was not okay. In fact, it was very far away from okay. But he didn't want to bother his innocent little sister with that.

"Yeah." was all he said.

Anais didn't quite fully believe him yet, but she thought, whatever problem he did have right now, it was probably just another one in an endless series of his made-up problems, that weren't really any serious at all, yet he had a tendency to exaggerate. So she shrugged it off.

However, the very next thing Gumball did was pat his sister in the head.

And Anais was almost shocked to see him do this. This was entirely unlike Gumball. Not _almost_ entirely. No. _Entirely._

So Anais started to heavily question all the things that had happened in the last few hours. Them coming back from school. Gumball falling in the basement. And then his showering. Somehow, it got her confused. So she had to ask him.

"Gumball, what did you-" but the blue cat had already gone back upstairs, to go to sleep.

Coincidentally enough, he walked past his mother in the hallway upstairs, who had just finished showering.

"Hi mom," he greeted her. "I just had that soup for dinner."

Nicole smiled. "So, how was it?" she asked her son.

"Great," Gumball said, with a short-lasting smile. Then, he added: "I'm going to bed."

"Okay, goodnight, sweetie," Nicole said, kissing her first-born child in the forehead.

"'Night, mom," he said back, finally going inside his bedroom, instantly throwing himself in the bottom part of the bunk bed, wetting the pillow with his tears, wishing this night would end as soon as possible, and eventually falling asleep.

* * *

The next morning, the alarm clock right next to the blue cat's bed rang at exactly 7:00 AM. For Gumball, the previous night had ended soon enough, but the pain of his discovery from the previous day did not quite go away.

In fact, after he got downstairs to have breakfast, he once again noticed his mother being in a good mood again.

"Hi, sweetie," she greeted him, to which of course he greeted back.

"'Morning, mom." After this, he thought about having Daisy Flakes for breakfast, but he had those nearly every morning, and he thought his mother would find that unhealthy. Still not wanting to upset her, especially in the morning, he made himself a ham sandwich.

Nicole noticed this and smiled at her son, patting him in the head.

This made Gumball realize something. Thanks to his mother's last-moment decision not to abandon him, she had to put up with him all day, every day, from sunrise to sunset.

That made him feel even worse.

"How can she live like this?" he wondered.

But before he had more time to wonder, the horn of the school bus was heard. Gumball quickly grabbed his bag and ran to the bus, with Darwin and Anais already being there. Entering the bus, he just walked up to his usual seat on the bus, not saying a word during the entire ride to the school.

Aside from his siblings, not many other students noticed that the usually cynical and sarcastic blue cat was now completely silent.

But some did.

Carmen, for instance.

But more on that later.

On the lunch break, Gumball sat all alone, to think a little more about all this. His goldfish brother's first instinct was to sit next to him.

"Hey, Gumball, did you see what-" but he immediately stopped when he saw Gumball's frowned face. "Are you alright?" he asked him.

Gumball heard what Darwin had asked him and, almost instantly replied with:

"Oh, yeah, I just... thought you'd want to be with Carrie..."

The two stared at each other mildly intensely, for around half a dozen seconds, until Darwin exclaimed:

"You're right!" and headed right towards the table that his ghost girlfriend was sitting by.

Gumball got lost in his own thoughts again. Spending some 15 minutes in that state, he made no decent conclusion from it.

Out of nowhere, someone slammed his own plate right in front of him. Suddenly, Gumball felt like he had just woken up, and looked in front of himself. It was Carmen, a female cactus and another one of his classmates.

"I'm listening," she said.

In utter confusion, Gumball couldn't say much else than:

"What?"

"You haven't said a word since you got on the bus," the cactus inquired. "Obviously you're plotting a giant prank. Since everybody else is clearly tired of being your victim, I might as well voluntarily fall for it," she explained. "So, I'm listening."

Gumball tried to connect the dots on how Carmen even came to such a conclusion. "I..." he tried to say something, but eventually:

"There is no prank."

"_That_ I'm not falling for," Carmen simply replied.

"No, really, Carmen," Gumball said, "there is no prank."

Carmen still didn't buy it. Still, she went back to the table she had initially sat on, wondering, ignorantly, what it could be. But not until:

"Carmen!" the blue cat shouted.

_I knew it,_ the cactus thought, turning around. "Yes?"

"When you come home today..." Gumball said, "...tell your parents you love them."

Carmen got a little confused, but she still said: "Okay..." and walked away.

Unclear to anyone who noticed his behavior, the blue cat even spent the rest of the school day in this state.

* * *

In the evening, after coming home, actually doing his homework, and having dinner, Gumball sat on the couch to watch the TV, paying absolutely no attention to what was actually airing on it. His father was sitting on the other side of the couch. Gumball looked at him and remembered that he too was part of the decision on abandoning him. What was way different about him, in comparison with his mother, was that Richard never acted like anything remotely close to resulting in such a decision ever even happened.

Gumball sighed. Bored from not watching the TV, he got off the couch, and headed towards the entrance door of the house.

"I'm going out for a walk," he told his family.

"Okay," Nicole replied, as Gumball went out.

During his walk around Elmore in the evening, Gumball was looking on the sideway he was walking on, never even once lifting his head up to see where he was going. Sighing so many times, he wondered how much he really knew about his parents, or the rest of his family, or anyone he knew for that matter.

Eventually, he did lift his head up, only to see that he had somehow walked himself to the downtown of Elmore. There hundreds of people either walking or driving down the streets, minding their own business, with him just standing by the side. He was near a large 4-way road intersection, surrounded by skyscrapers and numerous advertisements, mostly for food. It didn't matter all that much to him right now. He wasn't hungry. For a second, he thought about how his dad would love to see a scenery like this.

He then started walking in an unknown direction. Not back home, he wanted to stay outdoor a for little more time; but not exactly wanting to get lost. So he just walked. With no idea where he would end up.

After a little while, it started feeling actually quite comfortable for Gumball to do this kind of walk. The refreshing air felt good for him, and the sight of people being busy under the streetlights, he somehow found peaceful.

"Maybe I should do this everyday..." he thought to himself.

Sadly, those thoughts didn't last very long.

A few minutes later, he found himself at a zebra crossing. Logically, he began to cross it. What he didn't pay attention to was the red light for the pedestrians. Thus, in the middle of the crossing, as well as in the middle of his thoughts, he heard a loud honk from his left.

Snap!

He looked on his left, and saw a huge car coming right towards him. "No!" he yelled, quickly running to the other side of the crossing, to avoid danger.

Unluckily so.

"Hey, idiot!" was heard from the very same car. Gumball turned his head around, to see the same car's window, by the driver's side, opening up. "What's wrong with you?" the driver yelled.

Gumball had a tiny spark of hope that the driver was talking to somebody else around him, but that spark went off the very next moment, when he saw him looking at him directly in the eyes, it being clear that he wasn't going anywhere until the blue cat at least spoke.

"I'm sorry, sir," Gumball began, "I didn't-"

"You didn't what?!" the driver stomped furiously out of the car. It was a giant muscular leopard, clearly male. "Notice that there was a red light for you?! Who do you think you are?!"

"I said I'm sorry," Gumball answered, now even feeling a little afraid.

"Oh, you will be sorry!" the leopard yelled angrily. "You braindead bastard!" he screamed at him.

Of course, Gumball was already in a puddle of fear by now, but now, that puddle had just become a lake. Because the leopard, angered, started going in his direction.

With completely and entirely zero second thought, Gumball ran! Without even thinking about looking back! And the leopard ran right after him!

It wasn't until a few seconds after he started running that he realized he was running for his life. And he was too afraid to look back, because considering how absolutely pissed off the leopard was, it could be certain death.

And the leopard only sped up.

It might have been two and a half blocks, if even that many.

He caught him.

"NO!" the blue cat shouted extremely loudly. "NO, PLEASE, NO!" but the leopard grabbed him by the neck.

With one second of nothing happening, Gumball barely shouted:

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" as the infuriated leopard began to strangle him!

But the general idiots that were the people around this scene mostly started to _record_ this! They just stood there and held their cellphones in the air, directing towards the two literal animals! With _nobody_ even trying to jump inside to stop this!

Fortunately for his own life, Gumball noticed that his hands were free. The leopard did not cease them. So, first he tried the normal way to escape the lethal situation: he grabbed the leopard's arms, the ones which he held Gumball's head with, to try and get himself free from them. Of course it didn't work at all. And Gumball was now losing most of his breath. So, there was only one option left.

He had to do it.

He opened his claws!

The leopard only had half a second to even think of a way to react to this, before Gumball instantly began to very, _very_ violently scratch the fur and skin off his current opponent's hands. The leopard roared of pain, but more importantly, from that same pain, he released his hands from the clutch, accidentally setting the blue cat free. Seeing that the leopard even fell to the ground from how painful this felt, Gumball didn't even think once, let alone twice.

He ran!

Using all four of his limbs.

So fast, in fact, that no one could properly see where he had gone.

After an extremely long run, with no stopping, all covered in sweat, all shaken from fear, and still trying to put the pieces together as to what had just happened there, Gumball found himself in front of his family's house again. Completely tired from the run, he collapsed on the ground, almost falling asleep.

"No..." he thought, "...not just yet..." as he got inside the house. It was already very late at night, so everyone was fast asleep. Too tired to do anything else, Gumball went in his room, jumped on his bed, and quickly drifted off.

What he did not know was that the unprecedented fight between him and the leopard, that he had just come home from, received an air on the late night news.

And there was one specific person in Elmore, with a particular habit of watching late night news, to whose face this news brought an extremely enormous smile, finally having witnessed the blue cat's last straw, enabling her to do the deed she wanted to do for a long time.

"Finally..." Ms. Simian smiled evilly...

**There goes chapter four. So, Ms. Simian found out what Gumball did back there, late in the night. Now, she can finally do whatever the thing she wanted to make Gumball feel... well, not quite the way he wanted to. Until chapter five, leave reviews and try to predict what this deed of Ms. Simian's will be. See you!**


	5. In suits

**Hi, everyone! I'm back with chapter five.**

**I did not expect this many reviews for the previous chapter. Thank you!**

**I should also thank you for posting your predictions on Ms. Simian's action. Sadly, they were incorrect. You'll see.**

**Anyway, here's chapter five. Enjoy!**

That night, Gumball could barely sleep. The whole time that the moon was out, his thoughts heavily revolved around that fight. He knew that was probably the case, but still, he really hoped that the psychopathic leopard he had just fought off would not find him, or that he did not see which way the blue cat had gone. After a little thinking, figuring out that he would most likely have been dead by now had the leopard known where he had gone. Somehow it still worried him, though. He just stared in the direction of his computer for a while, occasionally looking at the window just in case. Eventually, he did fall asleep.

Little did he know, the leopard would be the very least of his worries...

* * *

The next morning, the alarm went off at 7:00 AM, as usual. Oddly enough, Gumball felt well-rested, so he quickly went to the bathroom to get himself ready for the day. But he had to stop when he saw his mother had already entered it. This reminded him of all the things that had happened way before the fight with the leopard. Finding the letter and everything that came after that.

He felt bad again.

So he sighed. Waiting for his mother to finish. Hearing his father already chewing some food from downstairs.

"Oh, hi, sweetie," Nicole said after she did finish her business in the bathroom, patting him by his messy fur. "Did you sleep well last night?"

At the very first moment, Gumball hesitated to answer. There was absolutely no way he would tell her, or anyone, what happened the previous night. But, as a matter of fact, after falling asleep, he _did_ sleep well. Therefore:

"Yeah."

"Nice to hear that," Nicole replied, kissing him in the forehead.

After she walked away, Gumball sighed in relief.

He then went downstairs to have breakfast, but he saw his father had already eaten almost all the food from the fridge. Just as the blue cat was entering the kitchen, Richard was taking another sausage out. Gumball's first thought was to take it away from him, but knowing that it would make him sad - and he certainly didn't need more sadness in his life, either - he decided to let him be. He wasn't all _that_ hungry, after all.

He then thought about something. From the moment he discovered that letter, not one single time had his mother gotten angry at him for anything, and neither had his father been disappointed at him over something ridiculous.

They were both finally on the verge of living their normal lives.

Gumball knew exactly what this meant.

He had to be something he was not, to make his parents happy.

And the little blue cat had never felt worse than the moment he realized that.

His eyes got watery, but he sustained the tears.

For now.

* * *

Once in the class, Gumball once again got lost in his thoughts. Trying to read the pages from a textbook, but actually just switching from one page to the next, he didn't pay attention to a single word in it.

He couldn't.

Meanwhile, Ms. Simian was in the middle of explaining photosynthesis to her narrow students. Noticing Gumball was, as always, in the front, she turned her head back to the blackboard, smirking without anyone noticing her.

_He is not suspecting a thing_, she thought to herself.

In contrast, next to Gumball, Darwin was happily drawing something inside his textbook. Suddenly, he noticed his blue cat brother was in his frowned state again. He wanted to say something to start talking to him about this, but it seemed almost as if Gumball had been cut off from the real world.

There was something else that Gumball felt like he had to do, before going on the lunch break.

It was while he was walking down the hallway. He was just on one end of it, while the door to the cafeteria was on the other end. As he began walking towards it, he saw his little sister coming out of the bathroom. Seeing him, she had just become more serious.

"Hey, Gumball," Anais started. Luckily for both of them, the hallway was empty. "Is there something going on with you? You've been acting so... um... normal lately... Is everything really fine?"

The blue cat just listened to his baby sister, thinking about how unaware she is of how magnificent she has it in her life.

After she was done talking, Gumball just looked at her, sighed and closed his eyes.

"Well?" Anais asked.

After a second of silence, Gumball just fell on his knees and hugged his sister.

Anais still didn't understand where all this had come from, but she hugged him back. Then:

"I am very proud of you, Anais," Gumball told her, calmly, with tears in his eyes. "I know it doesn't always seem that way, but I really am. You are a lot smarter, more intelligent and more ambitious than I could ever think of being. I hope-"

"STOP!" Anais yelled at him. "Gumball, what is going on?"

And Gumball was, in fact, completely ready to answer, opening his mouth. And just as he was about to let a voice out...

The door of the hallway heavily opened, slamming the walls next to them.

This left Gumball and Anais in shock. "What the what?!" the blue cat shouted.

What was a lot more important was that, coming through the door, were three very tall bulldogs, in suits, looking frightening. Both Gumball and Anais gulped. They both noticed that the left one was tightly holding Darwin in his hands!

This infused an awful lot of fear into the biological siblings. Gumball was immensely hoping that this didn't have anything to do with what had happened the previous night, while Anais wondered if Gumball's frowned state had something to do with this.

Both were then thrown into vast confusion, when next to the bulldogs stood a smirking Ms. Simian.

"There they are!" she shouted, pointing at the blue cat and the pink bunny. The two looked at each other in shock. Then, one of the bulldogs spoke:

"Are you two Gumball Watterson and Anais Watterson?"

They were both frightened that these people, whom they had never met, knew their names. Gumball didn't know what to do next; he just looked at his goldfish brother being held tight.

"Yes," Anais spoke for both of them.

"We are from the Social Service department of the US government," the same bulldog said. "We have been informed that you, alongside with this little guy," he continued, referring to Darwin, "are no longer compatible for living in the city of Elmore. We need you to come with us."

For Gumball, freaking time stopped! For a second, he really thought that this was just a dream. A very frightening nightmare, which he was going to wake up fairly soon.

In vain.

The bulldogs started approaching him and his bunny sister.

"Run!" Darwin yelled at them.

"Bu-"

"RUN!"

And without thinking - they both ran!

Fast.

Painfully.

For their lives, quite literally.

Not knowing at all why these people had come for them, not even properly paying attention to where they were running, both of them were just trying to reach the entrance of the school.

Running past dozens of students, and several teachers, both of them felt like they had expended all of their sweat. Panting in unimaginable amounts.

Seeing that Anais would not be able to outrun the bulldogs, Gumball took her hand and went on to run even faster.

Now, they were, in fact, outrunning the bulldogs.

Finally, they reached the school's entrance. Gumball slammed the entrance door, so they both got out.

They rapidly rushed down the stairs that were in front of the school's entrance, and Gumball quickly ran to the other side of the street.

Unfortunately for both of them, Anais tripped on one of the stairs, and fell to the very bottom of the staircase.

"Anais!" Gumball yelled, seeing his sister lying on the ground, in pain.

"Gumball, no!" the pink bunny yelled. "Go!"

"No-"

"Just go!"

"I can't-" the blue cat repeated.

Unfortunately so.

Because just as he was turning around to get her-

CLASH!

A car hit him. Completely out of nowhere. Sending him some 15 meters away from the school's entrance. Creating endless pain inside him. Causing severe amounts of blood to come out of his body.

Anais just watched this scene, and she couldn't believe her eyes.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed, crying her soul out. She then went on to approach him, not knowing what to do, feeling too scared and devastated from this. But she had to hide quickly, because the bulldogs had just come out of the building.

She jumped behind the nearest bush, and watched what would happen afterwards from there.

What did happen were three separate things, each one being more shocking than the previous one.

First, numerous students of Elmore Jr. High ran outside after seeing the bulldogs, the chase and hearing the crash. All of them knew this was serious.

Second, the bulldogs were taking Darwin away, putting him in the back of a black van, probably thinking that Gumball, in the destroyed state that he was in - because he was now _dying_ \- was a lost cause.

But third... Third was what nobody at all would have expected. Since everyone else was preoccupied with either what was being done to the goldfish or calling the ambulance for Gumball, there was one person who, making slow steps, but big ones, approached the blue cat, that was still breathing.

Leaning over his head, Ms. Simian smirked.

"Next time," she told him, "think twice before opening your claws."

That was the last thing Gumball had heard before he fell unconscious.

And she just walked away.

The ambulance came almost right afterwards. But the bulldogs, in the van - with Darwin inside - had left.

Anais turned her head to face one of the walls of the school, still careful not to be seen in the bush, then she curled up...

And wept.

And wept so hard.

Both her brothers were being taken away from her, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"No..." she cried, "...no, no... please, no..."

The only thing she _could_ do right now was hide somewhere. Somewhere deep, somewhere far. Somewhere where Ms. Simian, or anyone she involved in this, would never find her.

And who knew how her parents were going to react to this...

She didn't even want to imagine it...

**There goes chapter four. So, Gumball is being transferred to the hospital, on what could be his deathbed, Darwin has been taken away, and Anais, who witnessed all this, has to hide. Nicole and Richard have yet to find out about all this. And Ms. Simian's "job" here isn't done, either. Until chapter six, leave reviews and try to predict what will happen next. See you!**


	6. The fourth floor

**Hi, guys! I'm back with chapter six. ****Sorry it took so long; life got in the way.**

**Some of the reviewers were worried that part of the previous chapter was left kinda unexplained. Don't worry, it will be explained.**

**Anyway, here goes chapter six. Enjoy!**

On the other side of the city of Elmore was stationed a business company named the Rainbow Factory, the name of which was more figurative than literal. The employees in there did not produce actual rainbows; it was just a metaphor for bringing joy into their customer's lives. The customers being the people who called them on their office phones.

Nicole worked there, too. She was, in fact, one of the Factory's most hardworking employees. On the other hand, she didn't really have many choices other than to be as hardworking as she could be, since she was the only member of her family that earned money. Still, she found this job relatively easy to go with.

Then, that very day, as Nicole was sitting in front of her desk, patiently waiting for the phone next to her to ring - it did.

"Elmore Rainbow Factory, how can I he-" Nicole started, but was interrupted by the voice from the other side.

"Hello? Can I speak to Nicole Watterson?"

Nicole got confused. "This is me... who is this?" she asked, slightly creeped out. But then, she realized that she had recognized the voice. "Principal Brown?" She sighed, being most assured that one of her sons had ruined something in Elmore Jr. High again.

"Mrs. Watterson, I am very sorry..." principal Brown began, with an ounce of hesitation in his voice. "Your eldest son..." as he was saying this, he thought for a split second that it may not have been the best idea to tell Nicole this news, suspecting how she might take it. There was no easy way to say it. But he had to. So he continued, "...may not have survived a car accident."

There were more than 10 whole seconds of complete and utter silence after principal Brown said that. Nicole tried to process what she had just heard over the phone. Even trying to begin imagining this picture was way too hard for her. She was just staring in front of herself. That sentence had just got permanently stuck in her head. _Your son may not have survived a car accident._ Unable to think about anything else, she did not utter a single sound.

"Hello...?" principal Brown asked, making sure he was still on the line.

He wasn't.

Nicole had hung up.

Still doing her very best to maintain her professional attitude, she got up from her seat, and walked straight towards the office of Mr. Yoshida, her boss, without even turning her head to any of her coworkers.

Once having reached Mr. Yoshida's office door, she knocked three times.

"Come in." was heard from the other side of the door.

As Nicole came inside, she saw Mr. Yoshida sitting in front of his office desk, doing fairly big amounts of paperwork, but not looking stressed at all.

"Oh, hello, Watterson," he greeted the blue cat.

"Hi, Mr. Yoshida," Nicole said back, already starting to lose part of her professional attitude. "I need to take the rest of the day off."

Mr. Yoshida raised his left eyebrow in suspicion. "Alright. And why?" he had to ask, since his employees always had to provide a reason for this.

Nicole then took a deep breath, and kept breathing for a few more seconds, trying to let her voice out. Trying to say it. Then, she straightened up and said it.

"My son-"

And burst into tears!

And collapsed next to the desk.

Mr. Yoshida was genuinely shocked to see this, since Nicole was quite possibly the toughest person he had ever met. For that, he knew that she would never do this out of nowhere. So, he had to ask:

"Nicole, is everything okay?" and got her up on her feet.

"No..." Nicole answered, crying her heart out.

"What happened to your son?" Mr. Yoshida asked, since Nicole had mentioned him. Barely able to speak from the tears, Nicole uttered:

"He... he got hit by a car..." Realizing she had just said that, she covered her face with her hands, crying even harder.

Mr. Yoshida didn't know what to do now. Since he was way too much into business, he was not very much empathetic towards everyone. So, now that he had to be, he kind of just stood there.

Then, his look switched to the framed photo of his family, that was placed next to his computer. He thought of Masami, his daughter. He had no clue whatsoever what he would do if anything were to happen to her. And right now, Nicole was going through this exact thing.

So the only thing he could say was:

"Go."

"What-"

"Go!" Mr. Yoshida repeated, fully aware of the concern his employee had for her son.

Nicole just nodded and, without packing her stuff, quickly left.

* * *

Back in Elmore Jr. High, principal Brown was disillusioned. Gumball Watterson had just been hit by a car and subsequently transferred to Elmore Hospital, with not very much chance of surviving. Having just called Gumball's mother to inform her about this, the call ended in a most unexpected way. Now, he was just sitting in his office, staring through the window at the shocking scenery, not knowing how to help anyone at this moment.

He then looked at the door of the office, wondering how other students felt about this.

Just as he was about to get up from his seat to walk towards it - Ms. Simian stormed in.

"Oh, hello, Nigel," the ape said, smirking.

The furry slug was confused, to say the very least, by this reaction made by his, somehow, girlfriend.

"Lucy," he asked her, disregarding her smirk, "what is going on out there?"

"Oh..." Ms. Simian replied, almost starting to laugh, "...just something that should have happened a long time ago."

Principal Brown looked at her worriedly. "What?" he asked. "What are you saying? Did you call the social service? Lucy?!"

Ms. Simian's facial expression turned into a serious one.

"Don't tell me you didn't want to get rid of that brat," she said, sounding almost threatening.

This got principal Brown furious. "What?!" he shouted. "No, of course not! In fact," he angrily pointed outside the window, where almost all students and teachers were centered, and even the police had arrived, "I don't think _anybody_ did!"

Ms. Simian glared through the window for a second, then said: "That doesn't cha-"

"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!" the furry slug yelled at her.

The ape now glared back at him.

"Yes," she said arrogantly, "I realize it very well. Do you?"

Both of them looked at each other angrily. Then:

"Out," principal Brown said, pointing at the door. Ms. Simian just stared at it, dissatisfied.

"Fine," she said to his face. "I have something else to do, anyway." After that, she just left.

Clearly they weren't dating anymore as of that moment, but that was by far the least of either one's concerns.

* * *

Driving as fast as she could, Nicole was getting closer to Elmore Hospital with each passing second. Thoughts raced one after another inside her head. Nothing else at all existed for her in this moment, except for her eldest son. She still couldn't bring herself to the fact that any of this was actually happening.

Having only a few more turns before she would arrive, she had to stop at a red light. So she wouldn't face the same fate as her son.

While she was there, she saw the hospital from afar. Just thinking of Gumball being there, needing immense amounts of help to save his life, she teared up again. Who knew what he was going through? What had happened before that? Was he going to be okay?

And then, just a glimpse of thought that he might die-

"Oh, goodness, no..." she nearly wetted the steering wheel with her tears. But, she quickly got herself in front of the Elmore Hospital.

Immediately stepping out of the car, she rushed inside, only to see her husband already there, in front of the counter.

"Richard?" she shouted.

Richard turned around. When the two saw each other, they instantly ran into each other's hug, their eyes flooded with tears and their hearts gravely broken.

After a moment passed, they cried even harder.

"Richard..." Nicole whispered through her tears, "...our baby is dying..."

"I know..." Richard said, inconsolably.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do..." Nicole said, still crying.

"Me neither, honey..." Richard replied.

After that, they just hugged each other even more tightly, in complete silence.

It lasted a lot longer than anyone would've wanted.

"Come on," Richard said, taking his wife's hand.

"What?" Nicole uttered, a little confused.

"The guy here said he's on the fourth floor," the pink bunny replied, pointing at the man behind the counter. Nicole understood.

Without a single word, both of them went upstairs to the fourth floor. Once they got there, they ran mindlessly through the halls, until Richard ran past one of the operating rooms, whose doors had round windows.

Looking through the windows, inside there he saw no one other than his blue cat son being done some serious surgical procedures on.

Upon seeing Richard stop, Nicole stopped too. She didn't even have to ask anything. She just looked through it.

Neither of them had to say a word. They just watched a number of doctors trying to save their son's life.

Both of them broke down again. _Why is this happening?_ they both wondered. They looked at each other in pain.

And they hugged again.

Nicole cried herself on her husband's chest, while Richard kept watching what was happening in the operating room. His heart was shattered once again.

"I'm sorry, Nicole..." he whispered to his wife. Not really knowing why, but there actually plenty of reasons for him to say it. But he just felt like he had to.

"I'm sorry too, Richard..." Nicole whispered back. Richard kissed her in the forehead.

For the first time since hearing about her son's accident, Nicole smiled.

She and Richard looked at each other, with a short smile. Then, those smiled reverted back to sadness.

"We can always have another baby," Richard said.

Nicole thought about it. It would be wonderful to hold a tiny baby in her arms again. But as lovely as that feeling would be, the pain that the baby wouldn't be Gumball would be stronger.

"It won't be the same," she told her husband. She then put her head back on her husband's chest and started to cry again.

Richard could do nothing more than hug her.

Just then, somebody rushed in the hallway that they were in. They turned around. It was several students of the same class of Elmore Jr. High that Gumball attended, including Tobias, Alan, Carmen, and Carrie.

Immediately after seeing Gumball's parents, the students almost froze. They looked at each other, and then at the Wattersons. They were clearly here for the exact same reason: Gumball Watterson. He ended up in a hospital after getting hit by a car. These students and Gumball's parents had not met before, and it was terribly unfortunate that this was the way they met.

"Hi..." was all Alan said.

"Hi," Nicole said back.

No one really knew what to say at this moment. It was really uncomfortable for everyone. So, they all either just kept standing or sat down.

Finally:

"Does anyone of you know what happened?" Nicole asked through tears.

The students looked at each other, silently arguing who would be the one to tell them. In the end, it would be Tobias.

"Apparently," he began, very hesitantly, "the social service came to take your kids away." As he was saying this, Nicole and Richard's eyes widened in shock. Tobias continued, "Anais escaped, and Gumball too, but he got hit by a car and ended up here."

The Wattersons were, for a very little bit, relieved that their daughter was fine. But they noticed that the rainbow-colored humanoid had not mentioned their adoptive child.

"And Darwin?" Nicole asked.

Tobias, as well as the remaining students, looked at her and her husband with a lot of hesitation, and swallowed his saliva. Nicole and Richard knew exactly what this meant.

"No...!" Nicole shouted.

But before anything else could happen, someone else ran in there, all panting, not feeling good from the sweat, or the tears.

"Penny?" Nicole inquired.

"Where is he?!" the shape-shifting fairy yelled. Richard just pointed at the door of the operating room.

Penny looked through the round window, to see the exact same thing the Wattersons had seen. Seeing this got her devastated as well. She sighed, painfully.

"Penny, wait!" was heard from the staircase. Arriving at the scenery, all windless and panting, was Patrick Fitzgerald, Penny's father, who, unlike, Penny, was still inside his shell. Seeing all the people that were already there, he didn't know what exactly to say, so he just greeted everyone with an insecure nod.

"Penny..." he spoke to his heartbroken daughter.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Penny asked her boyfriend's parents.

"We don't know, honey," Nicole replied sadly. "I'm sorry..."

Penny then ran into Nicole's hug. They began crying once again. Richard joined them.

The three were standing there, with no way to make each other feel better.

Nothing at all.

Nicole then remembered something.

* * *

It was one night a long time before all this, when Gumball was only 2 years old. She and Richard were sleeping peacefully in their bedroom, with nothing that could possibly ruin the night. Suddenly, somebody knocked on the door. Opening it, it was a baby Gumball, tightly holding his plush toy cat - the same one that Nicole had won in the amusement park several years earlier - and his face covered in tears. When Nicole awoke herself to see this, it broke her heart to see her baby boy so sad.

"Mommy..." Gumball whispered, "I had a bad dream..."

"No, no, no..." Nicole said, comforting her son, "it's okay, sweetie, it's just a dream..."

"Can I sleep here?" Gumball asked, still in tears.

"Of course, honey," Nicole said. "Come here..." she said, hugging her son.

The little baby cried on his mother's chest.

"It's alright sweetie," Nicole smiled at her son, kissing him in the forehead.

Gumball felt a little better after this.

"I love you, mommy," he said.

"I love you too, sweetheart," Nicole said back.

Soon afterwards, Gumball fell asleep.

* * *

After remembering this, Nicole burst into tears again. She immediately ran to hug her husband.

"Why...? Why, Richard?" she asked her husband

Both of them were filled with tears.

"He's gonna be fine," Penny suddenly said, assuring Gumball's parents. "He's been through worse than this."

Nicole wiped her tears after hearing this. "Yeah... I guess you're right..." she added. "He always finds a way..."

"Yeah..." Penny smiled. "It always amazes me how he gets out of every problem like it's nothing..."

She and Nicole looked at each other, then sighed.

"I hope this will be like that too," Nicole said, painfully.

Silence.

"Penny," Patrick spoke again, "I'm sorry..."

"You have nothing to apologize for, dad," the shape-shifting fairy told her father. "It's not your fault..."

"I know, but still," Patrick continued, "Gumball is a good kid. He shouldn't die like this."

Immediately upon hearing that word, Nicole and Richard closed their eyes again, feeling pain again. Then, they sighed.

"He's a great kid," Nicole replied, with a light smile. "He and Darwin once took me to the mall to face a number of challenges to prove I'm the best mom in the world," she remembered with sight joy. "I won, of course."

Penny giggled, then she also remembered, after all: "He helped me break out of my shell. I had never felt better than that day."

Patrick sighed, knowing there was at least some good way the little blue cat had contributed to his family's lives.

"He brought fate back in me when I had none," Alan also added.

Suddenly, most of the people there started to realize how helpful Gumball had been in their lives. How he changed most of them for good.

"I'm gonna miss him," Carrie said.

Nicole teared up again. "No, please don't say tha-"

But one person in the hallway was utterly shocked that everyone was actually saying nice things about Gumball.

"_You're not serious, are you?!_" Carmen shouted.

Everyone else stopped.

"What?" Nicole asked.

And that's where Carmen's ranting began.

"He talked rude about his dad in front of us. He tried to ruin Alan's life just to prove nobody could be good for the sake of being good! He sent Penny in a forest, where she could've _died_, just to prove to her that he was still romantic! And from what I've heard," she now turned at the Wattersons, "he _starved_ you just to prove that he wasn't a sellout! And you're fine with that?!"

Nicole looked at the cactus very angrily, looking almost like she wouldn't get too hurt by slapping her.

Carmen noticed this, and:

"I'm just saying," she explained, "you can't say he didn't deserve this."

This is where Nicole lost it. First, everything went silent for a second. She did actually think about what Carmen had just said, for a split second.

But no.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" she yelled at her. "SOMEBODY IN YOUR LIFE IS DYING, AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS TALK GARBAGE ABOUT HIM?! HOW CAN YOU-"

And then, she burst into tears again.

No one did anything.

"My son is d-dying..." Nicole wept. "W-why are you doing this...?"

She kneeled, bending her head down, her tears falling on the floor.

Carmen sighed.

Just then, somebody else entered the hallway.

Nicole lifted her head up.

She couldn't believe who she was seeing.

"Mom... dad...?"

The blue cat felt relieved, but somehow at the same time, even more in pain.

"We came as soon as we saw the news, honey," said Daniel Senicourt, Nicole's father.

Nicole immediately ran into her parents' hug.

"No, no..." Mary Senicourt, Nicole's mother, said, comforting her daughter. "It's okay, sweetie..."

"No, it's not okay!" Nicole exclaimed, devastated.

Mary didn't know what to say next. Both she and Daniel just kept their daughter in their hug, while she just cried and cried.

"I'm sorry..." she told them.

"It's not your fault, Nicole," Mary replied, still doing everything to comfort her daughter.

Richard then closed his eyes in shame, thinking this all may have been _his_ fault. He sighed painfully.

Seeing this, Mary stretched her arms out, for her son-in-law to take and join the hug.

When Richard saw what his mother-in-law had done, he knew he had no other choice.

He took it.

The four were now in a giant group hug, that felt a lot more painful than it should have.

Looking at each other, they were all full of tears. From the fact that there was no way they make each other feel better.

They were helpless.

"So..." Tobias suddenly spoke, "now what?"

Everyone looked at each other.

"Now," Nicole answered, wiping her tears, "all we can do is wai-"

But then, another old person blasted in there, extremely angrily.

Everyone was petrified for a moment, and then they saw who it was.

"Mom?" Richard said.

Granny Jo-jo, Richard's mother, was just standing there, in an angry position, not saying a word for a few seconds.

Then, she turned to Nicole.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" she yelled.

And that's where the fight started.

"What?!" Nicole yelled back. She couldn't stand Granny Jo-jo accusing her of something like this.

"This is why Richard always stayed inside when he was a kid," the old bunny said.

This got Richard a little nervous. "Mom..." he said. But neither Granny Jo-jo nor Nicole were paying attention.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Nicole asked angrily. "Just because my son went outside, doesn't mean that's the reason he got hit by a car!"

"Then what else would it be?!" Granny Jo-jo responded.

"I don't know, but how does your explanation make any sense?!" Nicole yelled.

"Because if you knew how to raise your children, this wouldn't be happening!" Granny Jo-jo inquired.

"Mom..." Richard repeated a little louder.

"What did you just say?!" Nicole was now ready to pound the old bunny to the ground.

"I said, if you-"

"Don't you think I would be perfectly good at my job as a mother if YOU JUST STAYED OUT OF IT?!" Nicole again yelled.

"And look where that got you," was all Granny Jo-jo added to it.

"MOM!" Richard finally yelled.

Everyone was completely silent for a moment, actually surprised that someone like Richard could get this enraged.

Granny Jo-jo turned to her son.

"What?!" she asked, still angry.

"What are you trying to achieve with this?" Richard asked her.

"Certainly a lot more than your idiot wife!" Granny Jo-jo responded.

And this is where Daniel got furious.

"YOU'RE NOT GONNA INSULT MY DAUGHTER LIKE THAT, IS THAT CLEAR?!" he yelled at the old bunny.

Granny Jo-jo just turned at him, completely angrily.

"DON'T YOU YELL AT ME, YOU BASTARD!" she yelled back.

Richard still insisted: "You did not answer my que-"

But then, somebody entirely else yelled:

"GUYS!"

Silence again.

They all turned to the person who had yelled.

"This is not going to get any single one of you anywhere!" Alan continued. "Look at you! One from your family is dying and you're arguing whose fault it is! What's wrong with you?!"

Even without personally knowing Alan, most of them felt ashamed.

Still, if Alan tells you there's something wrong with you, then you _know_ you messed up.

Nobody spoke for a very long time.

Then, at one moment, one more person walked into the hallway, the last one to do so.

Everyone looked at him.

"Principal Brown?" Nicole exclaimed. Then, remembering that he had called her and what Tobias had told her, she had to ask: "What's happening? What's going on?"

"Good evening to you too, Mrs. Watterson," principal Brown said, trying to be as polite as possible. "I'm glad you asked me that question." Then, he began explaining. "It appears Ms. Simian has become just overly, hm... _dissatisfied_, by the way your son acts up during his hours in Elmore Jr. High. In other words, he crossed her level of tolerance. As a reaction to this, Ms. Simian decided to inform the social service of him, and have them take not only your eldest son, but all of your children, to an orphanage. Apparently, she decided they should suffer for his mischiefs as well."

As principal Brown was saying all this, Nicole and Richard were left in utter disbelief. They didn't believe what the furry slug had just said was actually happening. Sure, they were well aware that Ms. Simian was capable of something like this. But never, _ever_ did they think she would actually _do_ it.

They weren't the only ones there to react that way. Everyone did. Even those who had previously known something about it (Tobias, for example), as well as those who were hearing this story for the first time (Daniel and Mary, for example). They were all looking at each other, quietly asking if this story was real.

"Immediately after meeting them," principal Brown continued, "Gumball ran away. In the process, he was involved in a car accident and, as you can witness, has been transferred to a surgical operation. And I am very sorry to inform you," upon the furry slug saying this, Nicole and Richard once again felt like their had dropped their souls, "Darwin has been taken away."

"NO!" Nicole screamed, tearing up again. "No... Please, tell me this is a joke..."

But principal Brown couldn't let himself stray off the facts.

"I'm really sorry, Mrs. Watterson..."

Right after he said this, Nicole collapsed on the floor. Mary and Daniel lifted her back up, hugging her again.

There was one other person who felt just as devastated to hear what happened to Darwin as Nicole and Richard did.

Carrie.

She had barely said anything that evening - evening because, by that time, the Sun had already come in.

To hide her pain, she went invisible.

However, this was not the strongest emotion she would feel that evening.

But more on that later, too.

"For what it's worth," principal Brown finished, "Anais escaped being captured."

The Wattersons felt a tiny ounce of relief from hearing that. But compared to what they felt from all he had previously said, he might as well not have said it.

Nicole still cried.

"Everything's gonna be alright," Mary comforted her daughter.

Upon hearing this, Granny Jo-jo tried her very best not to be the rude one in this situation. But somebody had to be.

"You can't know that," she said.

Everyone turned at her in disbelief.

She wasn't entirely untrue, though. None of them could possibly know how this would end.

All they could do now was wait...

**There goes chapter six. All those people gathered in the Elmore Hospital, all for the same reason. They found out what happened to Gumball. However, only chaos ensued. What is any of these people's next move going to be? What is Ms. Simian's next move going to be? ****What will Darwin and Anais go through? ****And most important of all, will Gumball survive? For chapter seven, leave your predictions, and also leave reviews. See you!**


	7. Lapsus vitae

**Hello, everyone. I'm back with chapter seven.**

**Sorry it took so long again, life got in the way. Again.**

**Thank you again for all the reviews so far.**

**I suppose many of you want to know what will happen to Darwin and Anais in this story. Don't worry, this chapter will reveal it! But not right away! Let's do it step by step...**

**So, here is chapter seven. Enjoy!**

Inside the operating room, a living hell was happening.

The little blue cat turned out to have been a lot more injured than any of the doctors working on him firstly suspected. Too many broken bones, blood spilled on all possible sides - but a heart still beating.

You'd think you would rather have a broken bone than a broken heart - until you actually broke a bone.

There were hardly any operating tools that _weren't_ used in this surgery, given how physically damaged their patient was.

However, there was one other person, in the operating room, who was watching this surgery, whom all of the doctors were entirely unaware was there.

It wasn't any of the people that had arrived here, or anything like that.

No.

It was, in fact, a ghost Gumball, sitting on a nearby chair, watching his own surgery.

He just watched himself lying there, eyes closed, while all the doctors were greatly hurrying, doing everything they could so this boy wouldn't stay a ghost forever.

Just the thought that this his body might never move again...

He closed his eyes and cried.

_This wouldn't happen if I hadn't found that letter,_ he thought to himself.

Then, after a little thinking...

_There would be no letter if I was just a normal kid._

He sighed again.

Not being able to watch this any longer, he ran outside the operating room, needing only pass through the door. Once outside, he saw all the people that had come here, apparently after hearing what happened.

_Penny?_ he thought, the shape-shifting fairy being the first one he saw. Penny was weeping her heart out, and Gumball was standing right in front of her. So it was even a little surprising that she didn't react at all when he appeared.

So he waved right at her.

"Penny?" he uttered.

No reaction.

_What the what...?_ he thought.

She couldn't see him or hear him?

Apparently so.

And neither could anyone else there.

_Granny Jo-jo? Principal Brown? Tobias? Grandma Mary, grandpa Daniel? Patrick?_ He then turned to the two people there that were by far the most heartbroken, in each other's hug, there being nothing at all that would comfort them.

_Mom...?_ _Dad...? _He teared up again. He was there, and he couldn't help them.

It broke his heart, too.

So, he hugged them too. Even though they didn't notice it.

But one person did.

And that person was in disbelief.

And that person just came up to the ghost Gumball, took him by his left arm, and the two of them just disappeared.

This, everyone noticed. But no one understood.

Where Gumball appeared next was in front of the entrance of Elmore Hospital. Heavily confused, since he was hugging his parents just a moment ago, he looked around. Then, he saw who had taken him here.

"Carrie?!" he shouted in confusion. "What did you just do?"

"Teleported you," Carrie answered fastly. "Gumball, what's going on?!"

Gumball looked at his ghost friend in a mixture of confusion and sadness.

"What do you mean, what's going on?" he replied. "I got hit by a car, that's wha-"

"I saw those social service guys or whatever at school already!" Carrie explained.

Gumball just looked at her, and closed his eyes in shame. He tried to say anything to defend himself. But he could think of nothing. There was really no point, either. Saying anything or defending himself. He sighed.

"What's going on?" Carrie asked again.

"I don't know what is going on, Carrie," Gumball answered reluctantly. "All this time I thought everything was perfectly fine, and then Ms. Simian shows up with these guys, and..." he didn't know how to continue. "...and I don't know why she only did it now, beca-" he then stopped in his thoughts. He looked away in mild worry. He then thought of what had happened the previous night.

The fight with that leopard guy.

_Of course,_ Gumball thought, feeling completely embarrassed. _What else?_

"What do you mean, _only now_?" Carrie asked him.

Gumball shook his head in disagreement, not wanting to answer that question.

"It doesn't matter..." he replied.

Carrie figured out there was more to all this than Gumball, or anyone else, even showed.

She wanted to know what was that _more_.

"Carmen says you deserve this," she told the blue cat.

Gumball sighed, nearly starting to cry again.

"She's right," he said.

Carrie was horrified to hear this. Not only did she not agree with this, it shocked her that somebody as self-confident and eccentric as Gumball would say something so negative about himself.

"What?!" she shouted. "How can you say that? And how did you become so depressed all of a sudden? This is nothing like you! Seriously, Gumball, what's going on?"

Gumball closed his eyes again. This time, he actually cried.

Carrie didn't know what to do.

Gumball just hugged the ghost. She hugged him back.

After a good 10 seconds, he released the hug.

Gumball and Carrie just looked at each other in complete silence, for a few seconds.

Then, Gumball figured out he would have to tell somebody eventually.

So he did.

"The other day," Gumball started, with pain, "I found out my mom wanted to abandon me when I was just a baby."

Carrie's eyes widened.

"What?!" was Carrie's instant reaction. "Wait," she reconsidered his statement, "how do you know?"

"I found a letter," Gumball answered, "with my mom's handwriting, where it says she and dad were leaving me at an orphanage."

After that, nobody said a word. Gumball looked at the ground again. Carrie just watched him, helplessly. This made her sad herself.

"Oh my gosh, Gumball, I'm so sorry..." she said. "I don't know what to-"

"It's okay, Carrie," the blue cat replied. "I should be apologizing," he said.

"Gumball..." Carrie sighed.

"Carrie, I'm sorry for all the times I've made you angry. I know you-"

"Gumball, don't," Carrie immediately stopped him. "Now is not the time. You'll have plenty of time for that when you come to life."

Gumball stopped. Then, he hugged her again. This time, the hug lasted a lot longer.

After the blue cat released the hug once again, Carrie suggested something.

"Maybe we should go save your brother and sister."

Gumball gasped! He completely forgot about his siblings! Where are they?! What happened to them?! It wasn't just his life that needed to be saved, but theirs, too!

"Anais!" he shouted, his sister being the last person he saw before coming to the state he was in right now.

"Do you know where she might be?" Carrie asked.

"No idea," Gumball replied almost instantly. "Whatever I can think of, she's a lot smarter than that. And I mean, _a lot_ smarter."

Carrie didn't know what to ask next. Still, she insisted to help at least somehow.

"Where did you last see her?" she asked the blue cat.

Gumball looked at Carrie in slight confusion.

"At the school," he answered, "but I don't thi-"

"Perfect!" Carrie instantly responded, stretching out her right hand.

Gumball looked at his ghost friend's hand, and knew exactly what this meant.

She was gonna teleport him to Elmore Jr. High.

"You're kidding me, right?" he asked her.

"No," Carrie instantly answered.

Still looking at her hand, wondering what could happen as a consequence of this decision, Gumball looked around, and also up at the fourth floor of the hospital. He then again thought about his sister, and how she, despite her brains, might still be in great danger. How Ms. Simian might still be after her! And he couldn't just stand there and do nothing.

So, he decided.

"Okay, then."

And took Carrie's hand.

* * *

Several hundred miles away, something a lot more bizarre was happening.

An innocent goldfish was waking up.

Of course, that's not the bizarre part.

The bizarre part was that he hadn't quite remembered going to sleep.

He started to breathe semi-heavily, feeling a little headache. It wasn't until then that he realized he was looking at the ceiling.

Or should it be said, _a_ ceiling.

He found himself in some sort of a bed. This was strange to him, as he always woke up in his fishbowl. But, as he got himself up from the bed, he noticed not only that there was no fishbowl around, but the room he was in looked nothing at all like the bedroom of his home. It was mostly dark, the walls were dark-yellow and all scratched, and the only light that was shining was the sunlight from outside the window.

Darwin, of course, panicked.

"Where am I?" he said out loud.

Carefully, he walked up to the window, opening it, only to see that he wasn't on the ground floor of whatever the kind of building he was in. In fact, he was on the third floor. So, even if he was planning to escape somehow, this was not the way.

He gulped.

He then walked up to the door, trying to open it.

It was locked.

That particular moment, Darwin just held his mouth open in shock, and his heart started beating fast.

"Why is the door locked?" he wondered, frightened by all this. "What's going on?"

Just then, he heard a strange noise from the other side of the door. He was scared at first, but then, peeking through the keyhole of the door, he saw several people walking through a hall. None of which he knew.

Except for one.

"Ms. Simian?!" he thought out loud.

Ms. Simian was talking to a female panda, who, by the looks of all this, seemed to be an important person in here.

By the expressions on both women's faces, this conversation was very serious.

Sadly, Darwin didn't catch much of the conversation from eavesdropping.

But he did catch one piece of it - and the most horrific one, too.

"Make sure he doesn't get adopted," came out of Ms. Simian's mouth.

Darwin wished he hadn't heard that.

"Excuse me?" the panda protested, not understanding why this old woman had such a request.

But that's when Darwin ended with his eavesdropping. Because this little of what he had heard - broke him. Adopted? Where was he? What were they gonna do to him? _Who_ was gonna do something to him, anyway?

All shaken up, Darwin sat by the wall next to the door, looking on the floor. Not particularly thinking about anything, he looked at the window, approaching it.

When he looked outside, he saw numerous buildings around him, looking bright on the moonlight, and down on the street, people just casually (or nervously) walking around, just minding their own business. Just a regular evening for them.

But this town that he saw from there, this town looked nothing like Elmore.

Nothing at all.

He went on to cry.

He had no idea where he was, or how he had ended up here, or what happened to anyone he knew, or anything!

He crumbled.

"Where am I?" he shouted again.

Suddenly, someone came in.

"Hi, sweetheart."

It was the same panda he had seen earlier through the keyhole.

Now, this panda may not have known that the goldfish had tried to eavesdrop mere moments ago, but what she did know was that he was more frightened, confused, and dreaded, than she could possibly imagine. This, she drew from the conversation she had just had with Ms. Simian, an ape that she had never met before.

"Hi...?" Darwin said in fear. "Who... who are you?"

"My name is Paula," the panda introduced herself.

Still a little frightened, Darwin approached her.

"Darwin..." he replied, nervously.

The two shook hands.

"Listen, honey..." Paula began, not entirely sure how to tell Darwin what she wanted to tell him. "This... woman I just talked to..."

"Yeah...?" was all Darwin reacted with, not wanting to let Paula know he knew Ms. Simian personally, or even that she talked to somebody.

"She told me..." Paula continued, not knowing how to say this without hurting him, "...she told me to keep you here for as long as possible."

Darwin did not believe what he was hearing. He ended up somewhere entirely unknown, and he was supposed to stay here forever? Why?

"She even offered me money," the panda added. "Naturally, I refused. But, she insisted I take the money. Apparently," she was disgusted by the thought of it, "it was really important for her to get rid of yo-"

"Where am I?!" Darwin interrupted her.

"What?" Paula was briefly confused. "You're in an orphanage, sweetie."

And Darwin broke. Falling on the floor. Crying.

"I'm sorry..." Paula said, comforting him. "I couldn't affect it in any way."

Darwin wetted the floor with his tears. Then, he ran into her hug.

"I'm really sorry, honey..." Paula still comforted him.

"This is not even Elmore!" Darwin exclaimed.

"No, honey, this is San Franci-" Paula replied, but then she stopped. In utter shock. "Wait!"

"Huh?" Darwin said, becoming nervous again.

"Did you just say Elmore?" Paula exclaimed.

Darwin wanted to say _no_ with his whole heart. All of it.

But it was a little too late.

"Yes," he sighed.

The panda just looked at him for a few seconds... and then she smiled.

"Oh, you're so lucky," she answered.

A light of hope appeared in Darwin's soul.

* * *

In the middle of the night, Gumball suddenly appeared just outside the main entrance of Elmore Jr. High, Carrie being the one who took him there. All shaken up from what had just happened, he still hoped that he would find something he was sure was there at the moment.

Or more precisely, _somebody_.

So, without a single word, he ran inside. Obviously it was almost completely dark in there, but Gumball did not want to risk turning on the lights, because that way, anyone from a reasonable distance would figure out that the school wasn't empty. Including Ms. Simian.

Luckily for him, Ms. Simian was nowhere near Elmore Jr. High.

He then started running through the hallways. Still feeling horribly unstable, but not sweating, he eventually made it to the school dining room. Fortunately, the person he expected to see was really there, clearly having gotten out of the social service workers' hands, which Gumball himself couldn't.

"Anais!" he yelled.

Sadly, it was to no avail. Because she didn't hear him.

"_Anais!_" he yelled louder.

"It's not gonna work, Gumball," Carrie told him.

But Carrie's voice was something Anais did hear.

Next thing that could be heard - were rapid footsteps.

Anais was running away!

"No!" Gumball shouted.

"Don't worry," Carrie reassured him. She then started to float fast through the halls of the school, teleporting every now and then, to find where Anais had hidden.

It took her longer than anyone would think.

No surprise, given how smart Anais was.

Suddenly, she found her.

"NO!" Anais screamed in an extremely high-pitched voice.

"Calm down, Anais," the ghost said, trying to quiet her, "it's me."

Anais stood for a moment, to see who it was in front of her.

"Carrie?" She was very confused. "Why are you here? How did you know I would be here? Is-" she then stopped, waited for a few seconds, then teared up. "...Is Gumball still alive?"

"Yes," Carrie firmly answered. Anais sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness." She then remembered something else. "Wait... And Darwin?"

Carrie just looked at her with a defeated look. If she had any clue where her boyfriend was, she would've gone and saved him first.

"I don't know that either," she said sadly. "I'm sorry..."

Anais began to cry. Seeing that broke Carrie's heart, so she hugged her.

"Come on," the ghost told her.

"What?" Anais replied with confusion. "Where?"

"To the hospital," Carrie said confidently. Gumball sighed in relief.

* * *

Exiting the orphanage she ran, carefully, trying not to wake any of the other children there up, Paula stood in front of its entrance, facing the street.

Taking a set of keys out of a pocket, she opened a blue car.

"Get in," she told the goldfish.

"Wait, are you-"

"Just get in," Paula repeated, apparently in a hurry.

Darwin only nodded, and sat on the backseat. Paula took the driver's seat.

However, just as she was about to get in the car...

"I knew you would do it!" somebody yelled.

Both Darwin and Paula turned around.

Somebody was coming at them!

"It's that woman I was talking to!" Paula shouted.

Darwin was utterly frightened.

Without a thought - Paula drove.

Really fast for an orphanage caretaker, too.

But coincidentally - Ms. Simian was driving right behind them!

Paula's only choice now was to drive as fast as possible, _and_ lose the ape.

"Come on, come on..." she thought out loud, "give me a turn..." she muttered, there being no allowed turns nearby, while she desperately wanted to escape being chased by Ms. Simian.

Meanwhile, Ms. Simian just honked aggressively at all the people who were even near this chase, inteding by any means to leave Darwin out of Elmore.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Ms. Simian yelled at the car in front of her.

Paula panted massively.

For a second, she even closed her eyes.

"Paula, the road!" Darwin immediately warned.

Right afterwards, Paula's eyes were open again.

Suddenly, a turn.

To the right.

And they were rapidly turning right.

Darwin lost balance in his backseat, but Paula didn't.

After the goldfish regained his balance, he looked at the front.

"Look!" he said, pointing high at the front of himself, "A highway!"

"Yes," Paula said victoriously, "Yes, yes!"

So she shifted into a higher gear.

However, Ms. Simian noticed that the two had turned right, so she did it, too.

"NO!" Paula shouted angrily. "Why? Why?!"

"We're not gonna make it..." Darwin started to cry.

"Oh, yes, we will," Paula confidently said, reassuring the goldfish.

But just then, there was a red light in front of them.

Fortunately so, though.

Because Ms. Simian wasn't slowing down with her car.

"Excellent..." the ape proclaimed, fully thinking she had them.

And then:

BAM!

The unconcerned ape crashed into a pole.

For a few seconds, she just watched the scenery of her car being completely smashed.

Then:

"NOOO!" she shouted.

She then looked up at the highway, only to see that the car she was chasing was already there.

She poured her head down to the ground, in utter defeat.

She had lost.

Meanwhile, Paula and Darwin had somewhat relaxed, after having successfully escaped Ms. Simian.

Despite thhe fact that this, given the circumstances, was a good thing, Darwin was still wondering one thing.

So he asked the panda something.

"Hey, Paula..."

"Yes?" Paula responded as she was driving.

"Why did you get so, um... energetic, when I mentioned Elmore?" he asked her. "Are you driving me back there?"

"Yes," the panda responded almost instantly. "I'm glad you asked that."

She looked at the far, with Darwin still being confused.

"You have..." Darwin asked next, by all chances already knowing the answer, "...already been there?"

Paula sighed.

"Yes..." she answered, a little less energetically than she was moments ago.

Darwin felt a little awkward.

"You see..." Paula continued, "I ran the orphanage there for a short while. This situation reminds me of one night there..."

"Yeah?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I stared through the window. And you could see the entry of the orphanage, right. And this most gruesome thing I saw that night at the entry."

"Yeah?" was how Darwin reacted, still confused.

"This couple was leaving their baby, literally in front of the entry," Paula explained, remembering that night with some disappointment. Then: "I think it was a fat pink bunny, I'm not sure, and a blue cat...? Yeah, I think so..."

There was a moment of complete silence between the two.

_She did not just say that__,_ Darwin thought.

_She did not just say that!_

Even though the goldfish was, highly successfully, showing no signs whatsoever that he even _knew_ the people that the panda was talking about, let alone _lived_ with them - he was flabbergasted.

Absolutely and entirely flabbergasted.

"Oh," was all he said to that, though.

"Yeah..." Paula said on, "but before they left, they took him back."

Darwin connected the dots - the baby was Gumball!

"It was the most beautiful and sad thing at the same time," Paula finished, sighing.

After the story was over, Darwin just looked through the window on his side of the car, wondering, before all, when and how he was gonna tell her that he knew those people she had mentioned...

If at all...

* * *

The ghosts of Gumball and Carrie once again appeared in the hallway on the fourth floor of Elmore Hospital. Although everyone still only saw Carrie being there.

There was one slightly more important difference, though.

"Anais?" Alan was the first one to notice that Carrie had brought the bunny here.

"ANAIS!" Nicole and Richard both shouted in unison, relieved to see their daughter was still alive.

The three immediately ran into each other's hug, crying their hearts out.

"Thank goodness you're okay," Nicole said, weeping, endlessly glad she could hug her daughter. "Where have you been? Did you get hurt?"

Anais was relieved to see her parents again, too.

"I'm fine, guys," she told them.

None of them let go of the hug.

"Thank you so much, Carrie," Nicole told the ghost. Carrie nodded.

Suddenly:

"Ms. Watterson?"

Anais looked at the direction from where she heard that.

"Principal Brown?"

Now, Anais was frightened, fearing what principal Brown might do to her, now that he had seen her escape.

Luckily for her, he was on her side.

"I just have one question for you," he asked her, genuinely wanting to know. "How did you escape earlier today?"

Anais took a few seconds to catch her breath first, then:

"After Gumball got hit..." she began explaining, but teared up again, having to mention this. Then she got it a little together and continued, "...I hid behind a bush. And I waited till everyone went away. Then, when it was already nighttime, I went back inside. Then Carrie somehow found me, and got me here."

Everyone in the hall was quite surprised by Anais' explanation; it being so simple, yet so very effective.

To Nicole and Richard, it was no wonder that their daughter, being a genius, came up with such a plan.

Nicole patted her daughter in the head and didn't stop doing so for a long time.

"You're alive and well; that's what matters to me," she told her daughter, with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. Then:

"Is Gumball gonna be okay?" Anais asked worriedly.

Nicole, being reminded once more that her eldest son was fighting for his life, saddened again.

"I don't know, sweetie..." she told her daughter, hugging her even tighter.

The ghost of Gumball watched all this, deeply heartbroken to see his little sister in this kind of state.

He had to hug her, too.

And, even though she wouldn't hear her:

"I am," he said.

And Carrie was surprised to hear this.

_What?_ she thought. Then, she looked at him.

He just nodded.

Carrie was shocked.

Just then, one of the numerous doctors that were performing the surgery on Gumball walked out of the operating room.

At first, he was genuinely taken back by how many people had shown up for the little blue cat. But then, he straightened up.

"Are you all here for Gumball Watterson?" he asked all the people there, although looking in Nicole's direction.

"Yes," Nicole answered.

After that, the doctor cleared his throat. This left everyone in anticipation. Then:

"He's going to live."

An _enormous_ wave of relief, joy, and happiness ensued right after that.

"YES!" the students shouted. Principal Brown nodded in confirmation.

"Oh, thank goodness..." Penny sighed. Her father also felt easier after hearing this.

"Thank you so much, doc," Nicole told the doctor, hugging him, crying tears of joy.

"You're welcome, ma'am," the doctor replied, trying to stay professional, "but your son still needs some rest."

Nicole nodded. After that, the doctor left.

Everyone in the hallway felt immensely relieved.

First, Nicole and Richard hugged each other.

Anais joined them.

So did Penny.

So did grandma Mary and grandpa Daniel.

So even did Granny Jo-jo, albeit hesitantly.

Others watched this big family finally make peace with each other.

Carmen even shed a tear.

Then, someone else came out of the operating room.

It was several of the doctors that were operating the little blue cat, transferring a bed to another room.

On the bed was lying the very person everybody had come here for.

Gumball Watterson.

Everybody looked at his direction, feeling like they had just released a giant weight off their back, knowing this blue cat was gonna be okay...

**There goes chapter seven. So, Gumball survived after all. Anais is safe, and by the looks of it, so will be Darwin. However, there is one more important thing Gumball has to do before this all ends, and by accident, Darwin also found out his adoptive parents' secret. Until chapter eight, leave reviews. See you!**


	8. Epilogue

**Hello, guys! Welcome to chapter eight. Sorry it took so long again, life got in the way. Again.**

**This is the last chapter of this story. Thank you for reading it, for leaving reviews, and most else.**

**To I AM THE BEST BOB, you got that from google translate, didn't you? It means "Mistake of life".**

**Anyway, here's chapter eight. Enjoy!**

Gumball Watterson woke up.

The first thing he saw was a blue ceiling.

Soon enough, he figured out he was lying in a bed.

Trying to lift his head up, it wasn't long until he realized he was wearing an oxygen mask.

Seeing this, he took a big breath in and out of relief.

He was alive.

Looking around, he saw it was still night.

So, he looked through the window, staring through it for a long while.

The city of Elmore looked more beautiful than ever before.

The way the streetlights were shining, as well as the rain, made the little blue cat feel calm.

It felt like nothing could go wrong anymore.

But then, he remembered something.

He had not yet told his mother that he had found the letter.

Looking back at the rain, he felt sad again.

None of this could now be undone.

"Gumball...?" was suddenly heard from somewhere.

Gumball got chills for a moment, then looked around.

"I'm here," was whispered.

Gumball then turned his head to look near the door of the room he was in.

"Who's that?" he whispered, a little worried.

"It's me," the voice whispered back, calmly.

Then, the figure slowly approached the blue cat. Gumball was a little frightened right now. Until he saw clearly who it was.

"Penny..."

It was his beautiful shape-shifter girlfriend. But instead of her usual yellow glow, she glowed blue, to match her boyfriend's fur color.

"I was so worried, Gumball," Penny told him. "I thought... I thought you wouldn't make it," she said, starting to cry. "Your parents came here for you, you don't understand how worried they are..."

She kept explaining it all. But Gumball knew it all already. He had seen the state that his parents, as well as everybody else that had come here, were in when he was a ghost.

So, he just listened to her speak. She had a beautiful voice. She also looked gorgeous in her blue glow.

At one moment, while she was talking, Gumball said:

"Penny."

Penny stopped talking.

"Yes?" she replied.

"I love you," was all Gumball said. Penny smiled.

"I love you too, Gumball," Penny said back, kissing him in the forehead. Then, she took his left hand. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked him.

"Yes," Gumball simply answered.

Penny smiled, hugging him.

The hug lasted for a good minute.

"You should probably get some sleep," Penny said afterwards. Gumball nodded.

Penny just kissed him in the forehead one more time.

"See you in the morning," she said, letting go of his hand, exiting the room.

As Gumball watched his girlfriend leave, he soon fell asleep, feeling completely peaceful.

* * *

"Wakey, wakey..."

Gumball heard the sound of somebody peacefully waking him up. He was still half-asleep. Then, he felt a kiss on his left cheek.

He woke up.

"Good morning, sweetie..." his mother whispered to him, her eyes fully tearful, but still smiling.

"Hi, mom..." Gumball said back. His mother was patting him on the head.

"How did you sleep?" Nicole asked him, as though this had been just another night for either one of them.

"Good, thanks," Gumball replied.

Nicole hugged him tight. Then, she cried. Not tears of joy, though. Tears of pain. From all that had happened the previous night.

"I heard something about the social service coming to take you away," Nicole said painfully. "Is that true?"

Gumball didn't know how to answer this question. He didn't want to hurt his mother by telling her what had really happened. But he would have to do it later, for an entirely different reason. Even he himself wasn't sure how or why this all happened.

"I..." he began, trying to conceive a reasonable sentence, "I was..."

But he didn't know how.

Just then, somebody else knocked on the door.

Both blue cats turned around to see who it was.

It was two pink bunnies who were also part of Gumball's family.

"Dad?"

"Hi, son-"

"GUMBALL!" yelled the smaller bunny, running towards Gumball and jumping right into his hug, crying.

"Hi, Anais."

"I thought I would never see you again," Anais wept.

"No, no, no..." Gumball comforted his little sister. "I'm here..."

As a matter of fact, the blue cat was more concerned about his little sister's safety than his own, so he had to ask:

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Anais replied through tears.

"Good," Gumball sighed in relief. "That's all I wanted to know."

Next moment, several people came in, talking to each other.

"But I'm telling you, they don't have those kinds of doors-"

"That doesn't change anything-"

"How not? You can climb several fe- Gumball!"

Tobias, Alan and Carmen all rushed inside to see their classmate.

"Dude!" Tobias exclaimed. "You made it! Do you realize how cool you've just become? This is brilliant!"

"Huh?" Gumball reacted, thinking for a moment about how this really was kind of neat.

"Gumball," Alan spoke next, "I brought you something. To make you feel better inside, if I can't outside."

What Alan had brought was a set of comic books. Gumball did, in fact, feel a little better after seeing those.

"I know you immerse yourself into it," the balloon added.

"Thanks, Alan, but actually..." Gumball began, switching his look to all the people in the room for a second, then back at Alan, "I need to ask Carmen something."

Alan's eyes widened in confusion.

"Okay..." he said slowly, letting his cactus girlfriend approach the blue cat.

Knowing exactly what Gumball was going to ask her, given what had happened a few days earlier, Carmen didn't have to say anything. She just looked at him.

"Did you do as I asked you?" was all Gumball asked her.

After a second of silence:

"Yes," she answered.

"And what did they say?" Gumball asked.

"They said they love me too," Carmen simply answered.

Gumball sighed.

"Thank you," he finished.

"You're welcome, I guess," Carmen replied.

A little more time passed in silence. Gumball's mother was fondling him by the head, which made Gumball feel easier. His family was crying tears of joy.

Then:

"Mr. Watterson?"

Somebody else entered the room.

"Ah, there you are..."

"Oh, hi, principal Brown..." Gumball said in slight confusion. But as the furry slug approached the blue cat, Gumball became more and more nervous, wondering what either one of them would say.

"Mr. Watterson," began principal Brown sadly, " I don't know how to tell you thi-"

But to break this moment, somebody's cellphone rang.

It was Nicole's cellphone.

She quickly answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Mom," was heard from the other side.

"Oh my gosh, Darwin!" Nicole exclaimed in relief. Everyone else in the room, since they had heard what had happened to the goldfish, looked at each other, mostly in confirmation and relief. "Where are you?!"

"I'm home," Darwin answered, relatively calmly. "Where is everybody?"

"We're at the hospital," Nicole replied quickly. "Darwin, honey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the goldfish said, not yet knowing that his family knew what had happened to him. That is, until Nicole said:

"Principal Brown told us what happened to you."

That's when Darwin stopped. So, they knew.

He didn't know how to respond to this.

"Well," he said, to say at least something, "I got back home."

Nicole sighed in relief. All of her kids were now safe.

"So..." Darwin said, "...I'm going to the hospital, apparently... See you there..."

"Yes, honey," Nicole whispered. "Bye."

And then she hung up.

Most people there then looked back at principal Brown, him being the one that this phone call had interrupted.

He paused for a moment, since he no longer needed to say part of what he had wanted to.

Fortunately, there was the other part.

"Mr. Watterson," he spoke back to Gumball, "what I wanted to say was; Ms. Simian has been arrested for what she tried to do to you and your siblings. That is all."

Gumball gasped. He wasn't really fond of Ms. Simian, but he certainly didn't want something like this to happen to her.

"Oh..." was all he said.

"The doctors say you'll be able to walk in two weeks," principal Brown added.

"Actually," Gumball suddenly said, "can I talk to my mom, please?"

"Sure, go ahead," the furry slug replied in confusion, not even moving.

Gumball noticed that everyone else was still there, not quite having gotten the point.

"I mean, just the two of us," Gumball added.

Everyone else got it now.

"Ohhh..." and went out the room, going back to their discussions.

"But don't you think it would be different if they used a ladder-"

"Nooo, that's not how it goes-"

"I think you would be overdone if you tried that-"

And Gumball and Nicole were finally left alone in the hospital room.

"Mom..." the little blue cat spoke to his mother. "I want to ask you something. And I want you to answer honestly."

"Okay..."

"And I don't mean, soften the answer just because I'm your son, or anything like that."

He then paused for a moment. Nicole did too, thinking about it.

"I want an honest answer," Gumball said once more.

Nicole took a deep breath in and out, not quite sure she was ready for this. But it would've probably happened sooner or later.

"Alright," Nicole said. From this one word, Gumball knew his mother really would answer honestly, but he didn't show it.

A few more seconds passed in silence, until Gumball swallowed his saliva, took a deep breath in and out...

And asked her.

"Are you disappointed in me?"

Nicole just looked at her son, and then closed her eyes in shame.

Gumball could tell what her answer was, but he needed to hear it.

Nicole sighed.

"Yes," she answered. "A lot."

There was a much longer period of silence after Nicole said that. Gumball's eyes teared up again.

"I wish I could say different, honey," Nicole added.

Gumball just sighed. His mother slowly patted him by the head.

"Why did you want to know that anyway?" she asked him, trying to comfort him.

That was when Gumball realized he would have to tell her that he knew. And he had no idea how she would take it.

So he breathed in and out once more, finally saying:

"I know you're better off without me."

Nicole's eyes widened in shock. She never thought she would hear her son say something like that.

"What?" she exclaimed in confusion. Then, trying to make it right: "Look, honey, just because I'm disappointed in you doesn't mean I don't love you," she said, with a smile on her face, still patting her son by the head.

Gumball waited for a few more seconds to pass.

"I know you love me," he responded, "but don't act like this is the life you wanted."

Nicole was now left in utter confusion.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, not knowing at all what her son wanted to say.

That was the moment.

That was the moment Gumball had to tell her.

So he took a deep breath in and out.

Waited for a few more seconds of silence.

And said it.

"I found the letter."

But Nicole still didn't understand. She had written numerous letters during her lifetime, so she couldn't possibly know which one her son was referring to.

"What letter?" she asked him.

Gumball swallowed his saliva, and said:

"_Dear caretakers._"

At first, no reaction.

But half a second later, Nicole remembered which letter began with those two words.

And she felt horrible.

Her son had found out that she wanted to abandon him.

And she was just looking at him telling her that, at this very moment.

Everything was coming clear to her now. Why he had been indisposed for the last few days. Why he hadn't caused any real problem around the house in that time. Why he didn't disobey any of her orders.

It was because he was heartbroken.

Way beyond repair.

And no amount of hugs, times said sorry, or excuses, could ever make up for it.

"You..." Nicole tried to say something. "...You... you found that letter?" she finished, also tearing up.

"Yes," Gumball answered.

"No..." Nicole instantly collapsed on her knees, with tears in her eyes, trying to comfort her son as much as she could. "No, no, no, no... Gumball, sweetie... I..." she tried to say something.

But just by looking at her heartbroken eldest son, she knew that nothing she said would make him feel any better at all.

She just cried.

"Look, mom," Gumball then began, "I-"

But then, his mother hugged him as tight as possible.

"Don't say a word, please," she reassured him.

With this hug, Nicole tried to say all the excuses, how sorry she was that she did that.

The hug lasted for a long, long time.

Both blue cats cried.

A lot.

With nothing to comfort either one of them.

"I'm sorry..." Nicole whispered. "I'm so sorry, sweetie..." Weeping a little more, she added: "You know I would do anything for you."

Gumball also wept now.

"Yes..." he whispered back, "...yes, I do..."

They looked at each other again, full of tears in their eyes.

"I'm sorry too, mom," Gumball added.

"Don't be," Nicole comforted her son, patting him by the head a little more.

Gumball sighed.

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Can I tell you a little secret?" Nicole told her son, with a smile on her face.

"Yes?" Gumball replied.

Then, Nicole leaned closer to her son, kissed him in the forehead, and told him:

"You're my favorite child."

From this, Gumball felt a lot better.

He even smiled.

He was so happy to hear that, that the tears he had been crying out turned into tears of joy.

Nicole continued:

"The day you were born was the best day of my life."

Gumball actually felt joyous to hear all this. He actually felt happy to know this was how he made his mother happy.

"I can't even begin to tell you how it was like to hold a tiny you in my hands," Nicole continued happily. "You were the cutest little baby. Sometimes I wish it could've stayed like that forever."

"Yeah..." Gumball said with a smile, trying to remember his earliest moments for a second.

Another moment of silence. Nicole kept on remembering all those moments she had with baby Gumball.

"You see..." she continued, sighing, "I... genuinely believed that every moment I spent with you would be like the first time I held you in my arms." Then, she paused. "I thought I would never have any hard times with you."

Gumball just listened to her. He once again felt bad, knowing that what his mother wanted to do was his fault.

"Sadly..." Nicole simply spoke, "...that wasn't the case." She sighed again, adding: "That wasn't the case at all."

Neither she or Gumball had to say anything from this moment on. Both knew what had happened after Nicole had figured that all those years ago.

The little blue cat felt empathy towards his mother, though.

Still, remaining silent would not have been enough.

Gumball just looked at his mother, who was still crying, stroking his head.

"You should have done it," he said.

This left Nicole shocked.

"Please, don't say that, honey," she said, still in tears. "I know I can't change that, but-"

"You don't understand, mom," Gumball went on, "...You don't have to do this anymore."

"Do what, sweetie?" Nicole asked, a little confused.

Gumball swallowed his saliva, and then explained:

"You don't have to pretend that this is what you wanted anymore. You don't have to come home angry every day and yell at me. I understand why you do it now." He stopped for a moment, to catch his breath, then continued: "You made this decision, knowing full well you would suffer from it, and here you are. Suffering. Working your life off just so I can have something to eat, and you get nothing in return. I know you're not happy."

Nicole tried to counter this, but her son was right.

Due to this one single decision, her life had gone way out of any direction she had ever intended. She may have cared for her son in great amounts, but this whole situation where she had to do endless, mindless work, over and over again, so that not only she, but her whole family, could even live, did not make her any happy at all.

Both she and Gumball were fully aware of it now.

"Mom..." Gumball said.

"Yes, sweetie?" his mother responded, still comforting him.

Gumball waited for a few seconds, sighing. Then:

"I'm sorry I didn't turn out the way you wanted."

Nicole just looked at her son, feeling like she completely missed her life path.

Like she had made every single mistake she could have ever made.

She felt defeated.

She sighed.

Then, she leaned towards her son again, and kissed him in the forehead.

"It's okay," she said calmly. "I'm sorry too."

In a conclusion of all this, the two blue cats hugged each other.

"I love you, mom," Gumball told his mother.

"I love you too, sweetie," Nicole said back, kissing her son in the forehead once again.

* * *

Two weeks later, Gumball fully recovered from the car hit, and was able to walk again.

When he first got on the school bus, his classmates nearly hailed him.

The moment Penny saw him on the bus, she ran right in his hug, not letting go for almost the entire ride.

Gumball had told his classmates about all that had happened that night, but was careful enough to leave out the part with the letter. Everyone was heavily surprised by how he managed to survive this.

Even he was.

Since Ms. Simian was no longer the teacher of Gumball's class, Mr. Small took the job. Naturally, he was also ecstatic to know what had happened during those few days. He deemed the blue cat highly spiritually strong for going through a night like that and still living.

Gumball thanked him for that.

However, something rather unusual happened that day when he got back home from school.

His mother, who was already home from work, immediately greeted him:

"Oh, hi, sweetie," she said. "Hey, can I speak to you alone?"

Gumball got a little confused.

"Okay..." he said, both of them going upstairs and in his bedroom, while Darwin and Anais went to the kitchen to eat dinner.

The moment Nicole closed the bedroom door, Gumball spoke:

"Look, I know tha-"

But Nicole immediately hugged him.

Really, really tight.

Gumball was surprised by such an action.

So he hugged her back.

It lasted long.

Very, very long.

Nicole finally cried her heart out.

"I love you, Gumball," Nicole said. "I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry I yelled at you for taking care of your sister. I'm sorry I chased you when you just wanted candy. I'm sorry I got angry at you for not taking the trash out. I'm sorry I told you off at the mall. I'm sorry for everything..." she still cried, and Gumball just carefully listened. "I love you so much, sweetheart."

"I love you too, mom," Gumball said back, also starting to cry.

Both of them sighed peacefully, now that everything was alright.

Nicole kissed her son in the forehead one last time, before both of them went back downstairs for dinner.

Gumball was relieved to know he could return to his normal life again.

He was happy again.

THE END

**There it is. The end of the story. I hope you enjoyed it. If you feel something is off, please let me know. Thank you for all the reviews again, and leave some more. See you!**


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